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THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY: 



IN WHICH 



THE ABMHAMIC AND MOSAIC DISCIPLINE 



IS 



CONSIDERED IN CONNECTION WITH THE MOST 
ANCIENT FORMS OF SLAVERY,- 

AND 

THE PAULINE CODE ON SLAVERY 



AS 



RELATED TO ROMAN SLAVERY AND THE DISCIPLINE 
OP THE APOSTOLIC CHURCHES. 



BY 



REV. CHARLES ELLIOTT, IJ. D. 




CINCINNATI: 

PUBLISHED BY L. SWORMSTEDT & A. POE, 

FOB THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, AT THE WESTERN BOOK CONCEKir, 
CORNER OF MAIN AND EIGHTH STREETS. 



R. P. THOMPSON, PRINTER. 
1857. 



/_ 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, 

BY L. SWORMSTEDT & A. POE, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District 

of Ohio. 



i 



i 



•c 

'>.<. 

m 



PREP AC E. 



■♦♦•- 



During the last twenty-three years, or since 1834, 
the writer of these pages employed much of his time 
and attention on the subject of slavery. He com- 
menced editorial life, January 1, 1834, and eighteen 
and a half years since that time has been occupied 
as an editor of the religious press. Throughout this 
period, the discussion of slavery formed a part of 
his official duties. On this account, he felt himself 
bound, as far as in him lay, to become professionally 
acquainted with the subject. He had access to all 
the leading weeklies, monthlies, and quarterlies of 
the times, and this subject has all along occupied 
considerable portions of these publications. The 
various pamphlets and books issued from the press, 
during the modern controversies on slavery, have 
been carefully consulted, whether those in reference 
to the abolition of the African slave-trade. West India 
emancipation, or the issues of the last twenty-five 
years, on American slavery. In prosecuting the 
subject in reference to the Christian Church, it was 
indispensable to have recourse to the great law codes 
of the Roman republic and empire, as contained in 
the Theodosian code, and the compilation of Jus- 
tinian, as well as the canon law, as these are the 



4 PREFACE. 

leading standards. The Latin and Greek fathers, 
too, as well as the classical Greek and Latin writers, 
furnish very important matter on some portions of 
the general subject. 

When the author of this volume was specially 
appointed, in 1848, to write the history of the events 
connected with the secession of a portion of South- 
ern Methodists from the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
the whole subject of slavery was necessarily in his 
theme; and after maturely examining the entire 
ground, his subject naturally was divided into three 
parts. First, the evil nature of slavery; Second, 
slavery as it stands connected with the Church; and. 
Third, as it stood related to the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, in those difficulties which led to a consider- 
able separation from her fold, in 1845. 

The first part of the discussion led to the consider- 
ation of slavery in its evil moral character, which is 
proved from its evil origin, its injustice, its wrongs, 
its conflict with Christian principles and the Chris- 
tian spirit, and from its evil effects on all concerned 
in it. This part of the subject was published six 
years ago, or in 1851, by Swormstedt & Power, 
Cincinnati, in two volumes, duodecimo. There is 
sufficient proof that these volumes have done good 
service in the Church, in establishing many in the 
south as to the wrongs of slavery. In the north, it 
has satisfied thousands, that as this work is in accord- 
ance with the teachings of the Methodist Episcopal ' 
Church, on the subject on which it treats, the Church 
herself can not be unsound on this topic. In short, 



I 



PREFACE. 5 

the approbation of all whose suffrage may be deemed 
valuable, has been given to this part of our subject. 
The late Dr. Bond, on several occasions, informed 
the author that the work was unanswerable, and that 
the writer of it, in consequence, had a decided advant- 
age over his opponents on those points in dispute, 
between him and them in other parts of the contro- 
versy. On review, after the lapse of six years, the 
writer of these two volumes sees nothing material in 
them which he would now change. And from all he 
can infer from the objections of opponents, or the 
approval of friends, this part of the discussion is 
sufficiently sustained as far as the author is con- 
cerned. 

Before the second part of the discussion could be 
prepared for the press, it was necessary to publish 
"The History of the Great Secession," which was 
accordingly printed in one large octavo, in 1855, or 
two years ago. This involved the principles com- 
prised in the other two parts, and they were used as 
occasion called for them in the historical narrative. 
This volume is composed, to some extent, of Church 
annals, which it was necessary to preserve and ar- 
range, for the future protection of the Church. This 
work, of course, will never pay the author or the 
publishers of it, in a pecuniary point o.f view. But 
its material is such that it was necessary to be pre- 
served for the benefit of the rising generations. 

The present volume — which is entitled, " The Bible 
and Slaveiy" — comprises a thorough discussion of 
the relations of the Bible, historically and theoret- 



'H PREFACE. 

ically, to the system of slavery. The chapter on 
patriarchal service, under Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
will show how their treatment of the slavery of their 
times led gradually to its destruction. The influence 
of circumcision on it led to its overthrow. The prin- 
ciples of justice and judgment practiced by these 
patriarchs warred against it, and the leading element 
of slavery, that " the child follows the condition of 
the mother," was overturned in the families of Abra- 
ham and Jacob. Ishmael, the son of the slave, 
Hagar, who became the freed-woman of Abraham, 
was free, as well as his descendants. The four sons 
of Jacob's two slave-wives, who afterward became 
freed-women, were patriarchs, or heads of tribes, 
equally with the other sons of Jacob. And when 
Jacob descended to Egypt, there were no slaves or 
servants to go with him. 

The cases of Joseph and the Israelites in Egypt, 
are the proper types of the reigning slave systems 
of the times. 

The chapters on the Mosaic code will show that 
slavery could not or did not live where, and as long 
as it was observed. The chapter on Roman slavery, 
which cost much labor, it is hoped will be acceptable 
to the reader. The exegesis and application of the 
Pauline discipline, it is presumed, will satisfy the 
greater number of unprejudiced persons. 

In preparing the chapter on Roman law, there was 
very little truly available to be found in the English 
language. What may be culled from the treatises on 
Greek and Roman antiquities, and the classical die- 



PREFACE. 7 

tionarieS; will be found very defective indeed, as to 
any accurate discussion on the merits of the leading 
topics. The writer was therefore compelled to have 
recourse to original documents alone as the only reli- 
able source of information. With these solely he pre- 
pared the chapter mentioned above, by reading and 
analyzing all he could find in them on the subject 
under inquiry. After this chapter was prepared, 
he found two works which would have aided him 
much, had he possessed them in time. The one is 
Blair on Slavery, which is a valuable book, and, as far 
as it goes, very accurate. This work confirmed fully 
what had been deduced from the original sources. 
Another publication of very great merit was obtained, 
in French, by Mallon. This work is infinitely supe- 
rior to all in the English language on the subject of 
the Church and slavery. After perusing every word 
of it carefully, during the session of the late Gen- 
eral conference, while watching over the little daily 
in Indianapolis, we found these volumes to sustain in 
full the brief outlines which had been prepared with- 
out any aid other than the original authorities them- 
selves. Should any thing further be needed on the 
subject, the republication of Blair in this country, 
and the translation of Mallon would satisfy the inqui- 
ries of intelligent, candid men. 

Though the author has, from the best and most 
^ reliable sources, prepared a thorough digest of the 
' discipline of the post-apostolic Church upon the 
subject of slavery, after mature deliberation, he de- 
termined to send out the Biblical discussion as an 



9 PREFACE. 

independent and separate publication. He has not 
written a word or a sentence that, as he believes, 
in its connection, can be faii'ly construed in favor 
of slavery. The author feels himself relieved of a 
considerable task, in having completed, although im- 
perfectly, what he has had so long on hand. He 
would now commit all to the providence of God, and 
implore him to bless what is good and right, and 
counteract whatever of error may be found in any of 
these volumes. He desires also, finally, to render to 
almighty God his sincere thanks for all his mercies, in 
sparing life and giving health to complete a service in 
itself imperfect, as other human performances are. 

Charles Elliott. 
Cincinnati, 0., 1857. 



CONTENTS. 



-♦♦*- 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Pack. 

1. Service and slavery the subject of Divine legislation 23 

Slavery is condemned by Scripture, page 23. Service a nec- 
essary institution, and approved of God, p. 24. 

2. Difference between service and slavery 24 

3. Slavery defined, 24 

By the civil law, p. 25, The laws of Louisiana, p. 25. Of 
South Carolina, p. 26. Judge Stroud, p. 26. General 
views, p. 26. 

4. Yarious ways of becoming slaves 26 

Enumeration by Justinian, p. 27. Other modes, p. 27. 

5. Moral characteristics of slavery 28 

6. Slavery the creature of law 29 

Civil law quoted, p. 29. It is contrary to the law of nature 
and to the Divine law, p. 29. It exists by unjust human 
laws, p. 30. 

7. The relation of the Church to slavery 31 



CHAPTER II. 

PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 

1. Preliminary remarks 32 

Origin of slavery in the world, page 32. Mixed service among 
the patriarchs, p. 32. The religious patriarchs not slave- 
holders, p. 33. 

2. Meaning of the Hebrew and Greek words rendered servant, 

slave, etc 33 

3. The curse pronounced on Cain 34 

4. Patriarchal government, 36 

( 1. ) How Abraham's servants were obtained, p. 36. ( 2, ) Re- 
ligious character of Abraham, p. 37. (3.) His servants 
were circumcised, p. 38. Religious element in this service, 
p. 39. It secured religious instruction, p. 39. And final 
liberty, p. 40. 

5. Yarious ways in which Abraham became possessed of servants •• 40 

Some were obtained by being proselytes, p. 40. 

6. Others were hoiight loith money 41 

The mere purchase determines nothing, p. 42. ( 1. ) Buying of 
personal property, p. 42. (2.) How God buys or purchases 
'his people, p. 42. ( 3. ) Service was purchased, p. 43. (4. ) 
Wives were purchased, p. 43. (5.) Joseph bought the 

9 



10 CONTENTS. 

Paob. 

Egyptians, p. 44. (6.) Purchase of Joseph involves slav- 
ery, p. 44. ( 7. ) Mere purchase does not involve slavery, as 
shown in purchasing for passage money, p. 45. (8.) Buy- 
ing merely does not sanction slavery, p. 45. 

7. Others were born in his house 46 

These were instructed and circumcised, p. 46. 

8. Some were obtained by gift 47 

9. Abraham arming his servants inconsistent with slavery 47 

10. Abraham's servants were voluntary 48 

11. He employed no force 49 

12. The social condition of Abraham's servants forbids slavery 49 

13. The patriarchs never sold their servants 50 

14. The classing of servants with cattle, sheep, etc., does not prove 

they were slaves 51 

15. The case of Isaac considered 52 

Does not favor slavery, p. 52. 

16. The case of Jacob 53 

His service to Laban, p. 54. To what extent he had serv- 
ants, p. 55. No slavery in his case, p. 55. Services of Esau 
to Jacob, p. 55. Jacob had no servants when Joseph was 
sold, nor when he went down to Egypt, p. 56. 

17. Service connected with the secondary wives of the patriarchs • • • 57 

Hagar, p. 57. The secondary wives of Jacob, p. 58. First. 
These maids did not remain slaves, p. 59. Second. They 
were loives, p. 59. Third. Their children were equal or 
secondary inheritors, p. 60. Fourth. Their children were 
not slaves, p. 60. 

18. Points of contrast between patriarchal service and slavery 61 

CHAPTER III. 

PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 

Service and slavery existed among the patriarchs 65 

1. The moral character of the enslavers 65 

( 1. ) They were wicked, page 65. ( 2. ) Were under the power 
of bad passions, p. 66. (3.) Determined to kill him, p. 66. 
(4.) Their conspiracy, p. 66. (5.) They forcibly seized 
him, p. 66. Their moral picture drawn, p. 67. Five char- 
acteristics given, p. 67. 

2. The protest of Reuben 68 

Speech of Josephus on the case, p. 69. The protests of good 
men in all ages, p. 69. The argument of Judah answers 
for all, p. 70. 

3. Commutation of slavery for death 70 

The argument of Judah for this, p. 70. It satisfied them, 
p. 71. The deception in the matter, p. 71. The theft, p. 71. 
The sin of the act, p. 72. Strictures on the commutation, 
p. 72. (1.) It has been the source of slavery, p. 72. Jus- 
tinian quoted, p. 73. (2.) It is unjust, and founded in 
injustice, p. 74. Blackstone quoted, p. 74. {Z.) The. profit 
of the commutation, p. 74. (4.) Our sales compared to 
that of Joseph, p. 75. (5.) It was theft, p. 76. (6.) It 
was sinful, p. 77. Two cases given, p. 78. (7.) The de- 
ception, 78. 

4. The slave-dealers in Joseph's case and our system compared, and 

identified 79 

Negro dogs, p. 81. Sale of Mr. Hill's slaves, p. 82. 



CONTENTS. 11 

Page. 

5. Grief of Jacob 86 

A case given, p. 87. Case of Daliah, p. 88. Other cases sim- 
ilar to Jacob's, p. 88. 

6. Distress and suffering of Joseph 89 

Similar sufferings of our slaves, p. 90. Are deprived of lib- 
erty, p. 90. This is done by force, p. 91. His unavailing 
prayers, p. 91. Our gag-laws, p. 92. He was converted 
into property, p. 92. The producers, traders, consumers, 
p. 92. The anguish of slaves, p. 93. Separation of chil- 
dren from parents, p. 94. Changes of masters, p. 94. Long- 
ings for liberty, p. 95. The slaves forgotten, p. 95. 

7. Providence of God over Joseph 96 

Lessons derived from it, p. 96. 

8. Reverse of circumstances of enslavers 97 

Anxiety of Joseph's brethren, p. 97. In our case, p. 98. Ob- 
servations on our slavery, p. 98. 

9. Our confession and remorse compared to those of Joseph's 

brethren 99 

10. Contrast the slavery of Joseph with the service under Abraham, 

Isaac, and Jacob 99 

11. Identity of our slavery with that of Joseph 100 



CHAPTER IV. 

EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 

The principles of this bondage and slavery the same in substance- •• 103 

1. Egyptian bondage was subjection to the government, and not to 

individuals 103 

The Hebrews enslaved as a nation or people, and not as 
individuals, page 103. 

2. The service of Egypt more mild than our slavery 104 

Instances given, p. 104. 

3. Wherein Egyptian bondage consisted » 105 

Compared with our slavery, p. 107. 

4. The new king that did not know Joseph • • • • » 108 

5. Points of resemblance between Egyptian bondage and our slavery- 109 

6. The Egyptians did not want to lose the services of the Hebrews • 111 

Our system compared in this respect, p. 111. 

7. Increasing number and power of the Hebrews a ground of fear-- 112 

Comparison with our system, p. 113. 

8. Danger of insurrection 114 

The Greeks noticed, p. 115. The Romans, p. 115. Dangers 
in our system, and means to avert it, p. 115. 

9. Prayer of the Israelites to God — and of our slaves 118 

10. God's respect to their prayers 119 

(1.) Bondage, its grievance, p. 119. (2.) The oppressed have 
access to God, p. 120. (3.) His covenant secures re- 
dress, p. 120. ( 4. ) His attributes against oppression, p. 121. 

11. The mission of Moses 121 

Allies of our slaves, p. 122. 

12. Punishments on the Egyptians 122 

Analogy between them and us, p. 123. 

13. Deliverance in their case and ours founded on the same princi- 

ples of justice and mercy 123 

(1.) The injustice the same, p. 123. Force the support 

of both, p. 124. Example of women laboring, p. 124. 

(2.) Threatenings are alike, p. 125. (3.) Judgments will 



12 CONTENTS 



Fasb. 



be the same, p. 125. (4.) Deliverance will be the same, 
p. 125. 
14. Arguments from Egyptian bondage against slavery 126 

(1.) A general argument, p. 126. (2.) Because they were 
strangers and bondmen, they should not oppress strang- 
ers, p. 127. ( 3. ) Redemption from bondage a reason against 
all bondage of Hebrews, p. .129. (4.) The Jewish code 
prohibits all slavery, p. 129. 

CHAPTER Y. 

MOSAIC CODE — CLASSES OF SERVANTS. 

The code appealed to to support slavery 130 

Order of discussion, page 130. 

1. The hired servant 131 

2. The sexennial servant 132 

Law in his case — its meaning, p. 133. Meaning of buy, 
p. 133. He and his family freed, p. 135. The gratuity 
conferred on him when freed, p. 135. He was no slave, 
p. 137. 

3. Ear-bored servant 137 

He was a contractor in the matter, p. 138. The master was 
bound by the contract, p. 138. Meaning of forever, p. 138. 

4. Wife and chikb-en of the ea r-bored servant 139 

The wife was a heathen, p. 139. Marriage not dissolved, 
p, 139. Children were free, p. 140. 
6. The daughter sold for a wife 141 

The law in the case, p. 141. (1.) Her father sold her, p. 142. 
(2.) She was purchased for a wife, p. 142. (3. ) The mas- 
ter could not sell her, p. 142. (4.; If married to his son, 
she is to be treated as a daughter, p. 142. ( 5. ) If she 
does not become a wife, she is free, p. 143. 

6. The Hebrew non-freeholder sold to a Hebrew 143 

(1.) Not a freeholder — his gratuity, p. 144. (2.) DiflFerence 
between the hired and bought servant, p. 144. The bought 
were superior, p. 144. (3.) Political privileges, p. 145. 
(4.) His treatment more lenient than that of the heathen, 
p. 146. (5.) Not to be ruled with rigor, p. 146. 

7. The Hebrew sold to a stranger. 147 

(1.) The purchaser a sojourner, p. 148. (2.) The servant 
a freeholder, p. 148. (3.) Had the right of redemption, 
p. 148. (4.) To be treated as a yearly hired servant, or 
with respect, p. 149. (5.) To be free at the jubilee, 
p. 149. (6.) Reason for the law, p. 149. 

8. The thief sold for theft 151 

9. The heathen servants 151 

The law in the case, Leviticus xxv, 44-46, p. 151. This 
forms the strongest ground for the pro-slavery advocate, 
p. 152. Errors of commentators on this point, p. 153. 
First. The stranger was purchased, p. 153. The heathen 
stranger, p. 153. Proselyte of the gate, p. 154. Proselyte 
of justice, p. 154. The poor only became servants, p. 155. 
/Seco7id. Legal restraints and disabilities laid on the stranger, 
p. 155. (1.) He could not be king, p. 155. (2.) Nor be 
exempt from usury, p. 156. (3.) Nor oppress a Hebrew, 
p. 156. (4.) He could be punished for blasphemy, p. 166. 
(5.) Must abstain from leaven, p. 157. (6.) Could not 



CONTENTS. 13 

Page. 

eat tne passover before circumcision, p. 157. (7.) Time 
of service, p. 157. Third. Privileges of the strangers, 
p. 157. Fourth. Religious duties of servants, p. 161. 
Fifth. The names bondmen and bondmaids considered, 
p. 162. Sij!:th. Meaning of buy, sold, p. 163. Seventh. 
Meaning of forever, p. 164. Eighth. He was free at the 
jubilee, p. 165. jtiinth. Meaning of inheritance, posses- 
sion, p. 165. Tenth. No ground for slavery, p. 166, 

CHAPTER VI. 

MOSAIC CODE CONSTITUTIONAL LAWS. 

II. Constitutional laws 168 

Principles and usages of service among the Hebrews 168 

These derived from heathen nations 168 

The Mosaic code nullified these, and prohibited slavery 168 

1. Canaan was to be, by promise, a free country 169 

This is embraced in the Abrahamic promise, page 169. How 
this was fulfilled, p. 169. 

2. Slavery was prohibited in condemning Egyptian bondage 170 

3. The essential acts of enslavement forbidden as capital crimes by 

a fundamental law, Exodus xxxi, 16. 170 

4. The absence of a slave code in the law of Moses, and the presence 

of a prohibitory one 172 

5. The decalogue condemns, prohibits, and makes penal the system 

of slavery ] 72 

The fifth commandment, p. 173. The seventh, p. 173. The 
eighth, p. 174. The tenth, p. 174. No support for slav- 
ery in fourth and tenth commandments, p. 174. (1.) No 
servants among the Hebrews were slaves, p. 175. (2.) 
Servants were not property any more than wives, sons, 
and daughters, p. 175. (3.) The prohibition of eovet- 
ousness condemns slavery, p. 175. (4.) The fifth, sev- 
enth, and eighth commandments condemn slavery, p. 175. 

7. The prohibition in respect of persons condemns slavery 176 

8. The rights and privileges secured to servants prohibit slavery- •• 176 

9. The Hebrew language has no word for slavery 178 

10. The servant could never be sold •• 179 

They could be bought, but not sold, p. 179. They were not 
subject to the uses of property, p. 179. Were in covenant 
relation, p. 180. They were voluntary servants and re- 
ceived wages, p. 180. 

11. No fugitive slave could be arrested 180 

(1.) The fugitive was not a Hebrew, p. 180. (2.) He was a 
foreigner or stranger, p. 181. (3.) He was under the pro- 
tection of the magistrates, p. 181. (4.) Palestine was u 
the asylum for slaves, p. 182. (5.) The Mosaic law ex- 
cluded slavery in recognizing fugitive slaves as freemen, 
p. 182. (6.) No law to seize fugitive slaves could ever 
be made, p. 182. (7.) This law shows the evil nature of 
slavery, p. 182. (8.) The Hebrew nation an example of 
a free nation, p. 183. (9.) Our Fugitive-Slave law con- 
demned by the Mosaic anti-fugitive-slave law, p. 183. 
(10.) The Mosaic code different from ours, p. 183. 

12. The Sabbatic year at war with slavery 184 

The law of this institution, p. 184. The provisions of the 
law, p. 185. Hebrew servants released in this year, p. 185. 



14 CONTENTS. 

Pagb. 

13. The jubilee set all servants free 186 

14. No Scriptural or other account of a slave system among the 

Jews 188 

15. The penal sanctions of Moses do not belong to a slave system, 

but to a free 189 

(1.) Case of a servant corrected with a rod — Plato quoted, 
p. 189. (2.) Case of a servant killed by an ox, p. 190. 
(3.) Case when an eye or tooth was struck out, p. 191. 
(4.) Case of the betrothed bondmaid when assaulted, 
p. 192. 

16. Summary of the constitutional laws 192 



CHAPTER VII. 

MOSAIC CODE — RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OF 

SERVANT S. 

III. Rights and privileges of servants 196 

1. All servants of strangers were proselytes 196 

2. The master was compelled to keep the Hebrew servant if re- 

quired. 196 

3. Various rights — religious instruction — were guests at festivals — 

had much time at command. 196 

4. The servant was protected by law equally with others 198 

5. Affection and love were to be exercised toward them 199 

6. Sei-vants were not to be vexed or oppressed 199 

7. The poor were provided for 199 

8. Servants might hold property 200 

9. They received wages. 201 

10. Were equal to their masters in all civil rights 201 

11. The gratuities conferred at the end of the term of service. 201 

12. Servants received into covenant relation. 201 

IV. Comparison op service and slavery 201 

1. The two codes are from different origins 203 

2. The one system is hereditary — the other by contract 203 

3. The law of love governs Hebrew service; the law of enmity, 

slavery 203 

4. Service was voluntary ; slavery is by force 203 

5. The servant received wages ; the slave did not 204 

6. The servant could not be sold ; the slave was 204 

7. The slave could be punished cruelly ; not so with the servant- •• 204 

8. Marriage was the right of the servant, but not of the slave 205 

9. The life of the servant protected ; the life of the slave exposed- • 205 

10. Much time allotted to the servant; not so with the slave 205 

11. The slave can have no property ; the servant can 206 

12. The servant had religious privileges by law ; the slave has no 

such privileges 206 

13. The servant had the common privileges of education ; not so 

with the slave 206 

14. Servants could redeem themselves; slaves can not 207 

15. In Judea the fugitive slave was protected and freed ; not so 

• with us. 207 

16. Our laws do not provide for general emancipation from slavery; 

the Mosaic code terminated service 208 

17. Effect of the Mosaic code on slavery 209 

18. The slave laws considered 210 

19. Conclusion 210 



CONTENTS. 15 

CHAPTER VIII. 

WORKING OF THE MOSAIC OODE. 

Page. 

1. General survey of the Mosaic code 212 

2. The Canaanites were not enslaved 213 

They were politically destroyed, page 213. 

3. The Gibeonites not slaves 213 

4. Solomon's servants not slaves 216 

5. The case of the Syrians in B. C. 893, sent home by Elisha 217 

G. A similar case in the days of Ahaz, B. C. 741 218 

7. Denunciation of Isaiah, B. C. 712 219 

8. Occurrence, B. C. 589 220 

9. No foreign or domestic slave-trade among the Jews 222 

10. Period between Malachi and Christ 223 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 

I. Origin of slavery 224 

11. The Roman law on slavery 225 

Various parts of the law, page 225, 

1. Legal definitions 226 

2. Rights of persons 227 

3. Ingenui, or freemen 228 

4. Libertini, or freed-men 228 

5. Of manumission and its modes, and how accomplished 228 

6. Difference in freed-men abolished 229 

Roman citizens, p. 229. Latins and the law of Junia Nor- 
bona, p. 229. The Dedititii and the law ^lia Sentia, 
p. 229. 

7. Who can manumit 230 

8. Manumission in fraud of creditors 231 

Minors under twenty can not manumit, p. 231. 

9. Just causes of manumission 231 

10. Abrogation of the law JElia Sentia 232 

11. Power of masters over slaves 232 

12. Power of parents over children 233 

Adopted children, p. 234. 

13. Of diminution 234 

14. What are fruits 236 

15. Slaves can have no property 237 

16. Who are witnesses 238 

17. Of making wills 238 

18. Of heirs 239 

The substitution of heirs, p. 240. Division of heirs — neces- 
sary heirs, p. 241. 

19. Of the peculium 241 

20. A new species of succession 245 

21. The decree Mirabilis 246 

22. A slave held in common 246 

23. Runaways, or stolen slaves 247 

24. Obligations of those under our power 247 

25. Of theft 248 

26. Injury to a slave 249 

On the peculium, p. 249. 



16 CONTENTS. 

Pass. 

27. Liability of masters for slaves 249 

28. Noxal actions. 249 

III. Digest of the Roman law 250 

1. Division of persons into freemen and slaves 250 

2. Slavery defined 251 

Taylor quoted, p. 251. 

3. Various modes of becoming slaves 252 

(1.) By wars, p. 252. (2.) By kidnapping and commerce, 
p. 252. (3.) By birth, p. 252. (4.) By persons selling 
themselves, p. 252. ( 5. ) By the operation of certain laws, 
p. 253. (6.) By diminution, p. 254. 

4. Slaves in the power of their master's 254 

5. They can have no property 255 

6. Nor make contracts 255 

7. Can have no marriage 255 

Conmihium alone is theirs, p. 255. Concubinage, p. 256. 

8. Are transmitted by inheritance 257 

9. Can not be a legal witness 257 

10. The fugitive — how treated 257 

11. Injury done to a slave 257 

12. Of manumission — it was variously effected 257 

(1.) By the census, p. 258. (2.) By will or testament, 
p. 258. (3.) By will or testament, p. 258. (4.) By 
epistle, p. 259. (5.) By adoption, p. 259. (6.) By mak- 
ing the slave tutor, p. 259. (7.) By being made an heir, 
p. 259. (8.) In the face of the Church, p. 259. 

13. Restraints on emancipation • 260 

The freed-man still depended on his former master, p. 260, 
The Dedititii, p. 260. The Latini, p. 261. The Liher- 
tini, p. 261. 

14. Patrons, and their relation to freed-men 262 

The subjection of freed-men to patrons, p. 262. 

IV. Slavery op Rome historically considered 262 

1. Slavery in the early days of Rome 262 

2. Number of slaves 263 

3. Masters responsible for the slaves 263 

4. Punishment of slaves 264 

5. Restraints on punishing them 265 

6. Slave-traders. 266 

7. Value of slaves 267 

8. Their food 267 

9. Clothing 267 

10. Their work — the egastula 267 

11. Their privileges 267 

12. Their education 268 

13. Division into classes 268 

V. Bad effects of Roman slavery 268 

1. The condition of the slave was one of great hardship 269 

2. Insui'rections of slaves 269 

3. Its effects in the rural districts 270 

4. Its influence on free labor 271 

5. On domestic life 271 

6. On civic virtue 272 

7. On public morals 273 

VI. Principles op justice in the Roman code at variance with 

SLAVERY 274 

1. Principles of justice as laid down in the Institutions of Jus- 
tinian 274 



CONTENTS. 17 

Pase. 

2. Axioms of justice in the Digest 275 

3. How these conflict with the system of slavery 276 

VII. Comparison between the Roman and American codes 278 

1. There are several points in which the two systems agree 278 

(1.) They are identical in the leading elements instituting 
slavery, p. 278, (2.) Both cases adopt principles- subvers- 
ive of slavery, p. 279. 

2. The two systems disagree in other respects 279 

(1.) The Roman law did not forbid the enlightenment of 
the slave in letters, p. 279. (2.) Nor prohibit his eman- 
cipation, p. 279. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

1. Extent of slavery at the advent 281 

2. It did not exist in Judea 281 

Not very expressly mentioned in the Gospel, page 282. The 
omission no proof in its favor, p. 282. 

3. Christ and his apostles condemn it 283 

They reaffirm the moral law on it, p. 283. Its not being 
condemned by name no argument for it, p. 283. 

4. The law of love against it 283 

5. The golden rule also 284 

6. The brotherhood of Christianity 284 

7. The equality of Christianity 284 

8. Inequality of slavery forbidden 285 

9. Our redemption 285 

10. The Gospel jubilee subversive of slavery 286 

The salvation of the Gospel the principal element, p. 286. 
It removes the causes of slavery, as poverty, captives in 
war, etc., p. 287. Sets free those already enslaved, p. 288. 
A remedy for all moral evils, p. 289. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE PAULINE DISCIPLINE. 

Introductory remarks 290 

An exact discipline on slavery in the New Testament 290 

I. The principles op this discipline 291 

1. The passages containing them quoted 291 

2. Instructions to slaves in the Church of Corinth, 1 Corinth- 

ians vii, 20-24 295 

(1.) The Christian should not hastily change his condition 
in life, page 295. (2.) Christian slaves should not be 
anxious about obtaining liberty, p. 296. (3.) Christian 
freedom above civil freedom, p. 297. ( 4. ) Christian slaves 
should do their utmost to be lawfully free, p. 297. (5.) 
No freed Christian should willingly become a slave, p. 298. 
His redemption forbids this, p. 299. ( 6. ) The eA;y\5i men- 
tioned here were slaves, p. 300. (7.) The instructions of 
Paul to the Corinthians gave no sanction to slavery, 
p. 301. (8.) Freedom from sin superior to civil free- 
dom, p. 302. (9.) Every citizen should promote civil 
freedom ; yet as secondary to freedom from sin, p. 302. 

2 



18 CONTENTS. 

Paob 

3. Instructions to slaves and masters in the Church at Colosse 303 

Duties of slaves, p. 303. (1.) Obedience to their masters, 
p. 303. (2.) The properties of this obedience, p. 303. 
(3.) The reward of the slave from God, p. 304. (4.) He 
must not do wrong, p. 304. ( 5. ) These douloi shown to 
be slaves, p. 304. Duties of masters, p. 304. (1.) They 
must do justice to the slave, p. 305. (2.) And that which 
is equitable, p. 306. (3.) Argument enjoining these du- 
ties, p. 308. ( 4. ) The effects following these duties are 
immediate amelioration and final liberty, p. 309. 

4. Instructions to slaves and masters in the Ephesian Churches •• •• 309 

Instructions to slaves, p. 310. (1.) The duties enjoined, or 
obedience, p. 310. (2.) Manner of performing it, p. 310. 
(3.) The authority and will of God is to control the slave, 
p. 311. (4.) The glorious reward to the slave, p. 311. 
(5.) These servants were slaves, p. 312. Instructions to 
masters, p. 313. (1.) Reciprocal good acts are required, 
p. 313. (2.) Threats and punishments to be avoided, 
p. 313. (3.) The reason assigned, p. 314. (4.) These 
masters were slaves, p. 314. There is no support to slav- 
ery in these instructions to the Ephesian Churches, p. 314. 
Emancipation, p. 315. 
6, Instructions in the First Epistle to Timothy 316 

The man-steal er, or slave-dealer, considered, 1 Timothy i, 10, 
p. 316. AvS'fictTrci'ijmi defined, p. 316. Scriptural de- 
scription of him, p. 316. The Plagiarii, p. 317. Slave- 
dealers classed with the worst of men, p. 317. Difference 
between the slave-dealer and master pointed out, p. 317. 
1 Timothy vi, 1, 2, considered, p. 318. (1.) Obedience to 
unbelieving masters enjoined, p. 318. (2.) And to believ- 
ing masters, p. 319. (3.) The servants mentioned were 
slaves, p. 319. (4.) Some slaveholders were Christians, 
p. 320. (5.) Paul gives no support to slavery, p. 320. 
(6.) This discipline to be taught and observed, p. 321. 

6. Titus ii, 9, 10, considered 321 

(1.) The general duties enjoined, p. 321. (2.) The particu- 
lar or special ones, p. 322. (3.) The reason of the duty, 
p. 322. (4.) The relation was that of master and slave, 
p. 322. 

7. 1 Peter ii, 18,19 323 

(1.) Obedience required of the slave, and why, p. 323. 
(2.) These servants were slaves, p. 324. (3.) And the 
masters were slaveholders, p. 324. Two classes of mas- 
ters mentioned, p. 325. (4.) No countenance to slav- 
ery, p. 325. 

CHAPTER XII. 

PAULINE DISCIPLINE — CASE OF ONESIMUS. 

1. The epistle to Philemon, addressed to him, his family, and the 

Church in his house at Colosse — the epistle to the Co- 

lossians 326 

Who Philemon was, page 326. Onesimus and his conver- 
sion, p. 327. Onesimus was the legal slave of Philemon, 
p. 327. 

2. How Philemon must receive him 327 

(1.) He must receive or treat him above a slave, p. 327. 



CONTENTS. la 

Page. 

(2.) A 6ro<^er— beloved— as Paul himself, p. 328. (3.) 
Philemon was bound by the epistle to the Church of 
Colosse, of which he was a member, as well as by the 
epistle to Philemon, p. 329. This required justice, reci- 
procity, and fraternity, p. 329. 

3. The leading points in Paul's plea for Onesimus 329 

4. The effect was emancipation 330 

5. The case gives no countenance to slavery 331 

Should Philemon have sold him, what then ? p. 331. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

PAULINE DISCIPLINE — GENERAL SURVEY. 

1. The apostle acknowledged some masters to be Christians 332 

2. Such masters admitted to Church membership 332 

3. The great endeavor of the apostolic preaching 332 

4. Paul enjoined duties to masters and slaves iti this relation 333 

The duties of masters enjoined in this relation, page 333. 

6. The duties of slaves to masters, as obedience, fidelity, honesty, 

and doing no wrong 333 

6. The reciprocal privileges of ea<5h 334 

The effect of these reciprocal duties and privileges would be 
emancipation, p. 334. 

7. These instructions connected with those to husbands and wives- • 335 

The instructions to husbands and wives subversive of slav- 
ery, p. 335, Paul's instruction concerning slavery would 
convert it into free and just service, p. 335. Paul lays 
down nothing to institute or maintain slavery, p. 336. His 
teaching would subvert it, p. 336. 

8. Paul gives no sanction to slavery 336 

(1.) A brief view of Roman slavery, p. 336. (2.) Paul 
gives no sanction to these, p. 337. (3.) The instructions 
to masters do not sustain slavery, p. 338. ( 4. ) Nor those 
to slaves, p. 339. (5.) General conclusion, p. 339. 

9. The teachings of Paul on slavery are opposed to it, and sub- 

versive of it • • • 340 

The sovereignty of God and his laws are opposed to it, 
p. 340. 

10. Doing good enjoined on all, is against slavery 341 

11. Doing wrong forbidden — this forbids all the wrongs in the 

system 342 

12. The equality of the human race subverts it 343 

13. And the brotherhood of man 344 

14. So does human redemption 344 

15. The instructions to masters would overturn it 345 

(1.) They are taught justice, p. 345. And to do no wrong 
or injustice, p. 345. The foregoing applied to life, liberty ^ 
security, ])roperty, marriage, and insuring these to the 
slave, p. 346. (2.) And to render a just equivalent to 
the slave, p. 348. (3.) And to disuse the whip, p. 348. 
(4.) The privileges of the masters no support to slavery, 
as their duties balance these, p. 349. The master has 
no just right to the slave, but a mere legal usurped right, 
p. 349. 

16. Instructions to slaves do not support slavery 350 

(1.) Not the duty of obedience, p. 350. Motives of the 
duty, p. 350. (2.) Nor of service, p. 351. Motives of 



20 



CONTENTS 



Paob. 

service, p. 351. (3.) Nor the virtues of honesty, fidelity, 
veracity, etc., p. 351. (4.) The privileges of slaves grow- 
ing out of the duties to masters, p. 351. 

17. Of emancipation 351 

The Roman law on the subject, p. 352. The Dedititii, 
the Latini, civea Romani, p. 352. The patron and the 
freed-man, p. 353. The true state of the question, p. 353. 
Emancipation the result, p. 353. 

18. The whole history of Providence in reference to freedom and 

slavery 354 



THE BIBLE AND SLAYERY 



L 



THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 



-►♦^ 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

1. The Bible is the rule, and only rule, of faith, prac- 
tice, and institutions for Christians. This Bible has leg- 
islated on slavery and service, in many places, and in a 
great variety of ways, from Genesis to Revelation. This 
was the case in the days of the patriarchs, before the 
giving of the law of Moses. The Mosaic code treats on 
these. So do the prophets, from Moses to Christ. Both 
Christ and his apostles deliver instructions on these two 
subjects. 

Slavery is condemned in various ways in the history 
of the patriarchs, in the code of Moses, by the prophets, 
by Christ and his apostles. Among the patriarchs it is 
condemned in the case of Joseph, and of the Israelites 
in Egypt, and in the principles of right delivered in these 
times in Genesis. The law of Moses makes slavery a 
capital crime, worthy of death to the enslaver. (Exodus 
xxi, 16.) The same law regulates service so that it must 
never, in a single instance, become slavery. The proph- 
ets denounce slavery in every case in which the Jews 
perverted service into slavery. One leading object in 
Christ's mission was, to proclaim liberty to the captives ; 
and his doctrines of brotherhood, of reciprocal good acts, 
and of love to others, proscribe slavery as criminal ; and 

man-stealing, by the apostle Paul, is ranked among the 

23 



24 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

most odions vices. The relation of master and slave 
was never originally instituted by any law of God ; and, 
whenever induced by wrong human laws, it is to be dis- 
solved, with the least possible delay, in consistency with 
justice and humanity. 

Service, not slavery, is an institution of God, and nec- 
essary for man. All abuses of it, and all morally-wrong 
acts in its exercise, are condemned, both on the part of 
the servant and master ; and the regulations respecting 
it are such, as in the Mosaic code, that it must never run 
into slavery. In this code there was recognized as lawful 
the service of the hired man, and the bondman, or bound 
man. The latter and the purchaser of his services made 
the contract. It could last only six years, or, by a new 
contract, during life ; and the jubilee terminated all such 
contracts, and proclaimed liberty to all inhabitants of 
Hebrew territory. Service was as distinct from slavery 
among the Jews, as in the United States. The principal 
difference is, that no slave should tread Hebrew soil ; while 
the laws of the United States admit both service and 
slavery. No slave could breathe Hebrew air, or tread its 
soil, without becoming a freeman. 

2. Service, as distinguished from slavery, may exist in 
various relations and circumstances ; but the relations 
of service are essentially different from that existing in 
slavery. We might mention the services of children, 
apprentices, minors, hired servants, professional men, 
servants of government. 

The relation of master and slave is very different from 
that existing between husband and wife, parent and child. 
The relation of parent and child is a natural relation ; 
that of mastej- and slave is not. The relation of hus- 
band and wife is voluntary ; that of master and slave is 
not. In these relations there is no right of sale, or to 
sunder them for the sake of gain. 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

The relation of minor is not to be confounded with 
that of slave. Nature, not force, has made the condition 
of a minor, and his service is for his own benefit as well 
as that of his ward. 

The service of an apprentice is not like that of a slave. 
The future good and happiness of the minor is consulted, 
and a full equivalent is supposed to be rendered for his 
services. This is not the case with slaves. 

The relations of hired servants, professional men, serv- 
ants of government, are essentially different from that 
of slavery, as all candid persons will at once concede. 

3, The best definition we can think of, and give of 
slavery, is to be found in the civil law, and is thus ex- 
pressed in the Institutes of Justinian as well as in the 
Digest : 

"The first general division of persons, in respect to 
their rights, is into freemen and slaves." 

*' Freedom, from which we are denominated free, is the 
natural power of acting as we please, unless prevented 
by force, or by the law." 

" Slavery is, when one man is subjected to the domin- 
ion of another, according to the law of nations, though 
contrary to natural right." 

** Slaves are denominated sej'vi, from the practice of 
our generals, to sell them captives, and thus preserve — 
servare — and not slay them. Slaves are also called man- 
cipia, in that they are taken from the enemy by hand — 
manucapti.^^ (Instit. Justin. Lib. I, Tit. 3, Sec. 1, 2, 3.) 

According to the laws of Louisiana, '*a slave is one 
who is in the power of a master to whom he belongs. 
The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his in- 
dustry, and his labor. He can do nothing, possess noth- 
ing, nor acquire any thing but what must belong to his 
master." "The slave is entirely subject to the will of 
his master, who may correct or chastise him, though not 



26 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

witli unusual rigor, or so as to maim or mutilate him to 
the danger or loss of life, or to cause death." (Stroud, 
p. 22.) 

The laws of South Carolina say, " Slaves shall he 
deemed, sold, taken, reputed, and adjudged in law to he 
chattels personal in the hands of their owners and pos- 
sessors, and their executors, administrators, and assigns, 
to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatever." 
(Stroud, p. 23.) 

Judge Stroud says, "The cardinal principle of slavery, 
that the slave is not to he ranked among sentient he- 
ings, hut among tilings — ohtains as undouhted law in 
all these [slave] states." 

A slave is a person divested of the ownership of him- 
self, and conveyed, with all his powers of hody and mind, 
to the proprietorship of another. 

Slaveholding is detaining one in this condition, or 
keeping him suhject to the laws of slavery ; and the de- 
tainer is the slaveholder. Or the slaveholder is one who 
sustains the legal relation of master or owner of a slave ; 
and to enslave, is to convert a freeman into a slave, or to 
continue him in a state of slavery. All men are horn free ; 
and it amounts to the same thing whether the free person 
is made a slave, or deprived of freedom hy conquest, hy 
kidnapping, or hy law. The last mode is that resorted 
to in the United States, in which, at this time, ahout one 
hundred thousand free-born children are annually con- 
verted into slaves. 

4. On the various ways in which men became slaves 
in ancient times, we quote the civil law, which is stand- 
ard on this subject : 

''The law of nations is common to all mankind, and 
all nations have enacted some laws as occasion and ne- 
cessity required ; for wars arose, and the consequences 
were captivity and slavery, both which are contrary to 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

the law of nature, for by natural law all men are born 
free." (Inst. Lib. I, Tit. 2, Sec. 2.) 

*' Slaves are born such, or become so ; tliey are born 
sucli of slave mothers. They become so either by the law 
of nations, that is, by captivity, or by the civil law; as 
^\^hen a free person, above the age of twenty, suffers him- 
self to be sold for the sake of sharing the price given 
for him." 

"In the condition of slaves there is no diversity, but 
among free persons there are many ; thus they are in- 
genui, or free-men ; others lidertini, or freed-men." (Inst. 
Lib. I, Tit. 3, Sec. 4, 5.) 

"A freeman is one Mdio is born free by being born in 
matrimony, of parents who are both free, or both freed, 
or of parents, one free the other freed. But one born 
of a free mother, although the father be a slave, or un- 
known, is free ; notwithstanding he was conceived dis- 
creditably. And if the mother is free at the time of the 
birth, although a bond-woman when she conceived, the 
infant will be free." (Inst. Lib. I, Tit. 4.) 

The various ways in which free persons were made 
slaves, according to the Eoman laws, are the following : 

(1.) By making slaves of captives taken in war by 
force, contrary to the natural law, but according to the 
laws or usages of nations. 

(2.) By the civil law, as when a person allows himself 
to be sold in order to share in the price. 

(3.) By birth, which is the case with all who are born 
of slave mothers. This mode, too, was incorporated 
into the civil law, by the common law maxim, jjcirtus 
sequitur ventrem — the child follows the condition of the 
mother. 

(4.) Taking into view the whole range of the existence 
of slavery, writers have enumerated the following modes 
by which men became slaves : first, by captivity in war ; 



28 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

second, debts ; third, thefts ; fourtli, man-stealing ; fifth, 
children of slave mothers ; sixth, by purchase. 

5. The following will present some of the leading 
moral traits of slavery : 

As slavery deprives a person of liberty, it deprives him 
of the possession or control of himself, and of the pur- 
suit of happiness, or it deprives him of personal security, 
personal liberty, and the right of private property, so 
much prized by all men. 

The person thus deprived of liberty comes under the 
dominion of his master, to use him according to his will, 
and he may commit this control over the slave to another 
person. 

The slave thus becomes an article of property, and may 
be bought, sold, transferred, given by will, or used as 
property is used. 

The slave is deprived of the right of marriage, and, of 
consequence, he is, by law, doomed to contubermum — a 
medium between brutality and concubinage. 

The enslaved children are deprived of parental training 
and control. They are without father or mother, to use 
the style of slavery. The father is accidental. The 
mother can not exercise the duties of mother, because the 
children are bound to obey the master and not the mother. 

If slave parents, under moral or religious influence, 
endeavor to perform the duties of parents, they are pre- 
vented from doing so by slave laws. They can not teach 
their children to read or write, or govern them as parents. 
They can not put them to trades, prepare them for any 
business, or control their course for the future. And then 
their children may be whipped before their eyes, sold 
from them, and separated from them forever, or hired out 
to others, etc. 

Slaves, in general, are not permitted to learn to read, 
or go to school. 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

They are, by slave laws, dejDrived of tlie riglits of con- 
science, because tlie master has the control in this. 

They can not be a witness in any case in which white 
persons are concerned. This is the source of many 
wrongs. 

Slavery visits the sins of the fathers on the children, 
or it treats innocent children as criminals. A slave, who 
wrote his own life, says: "The man who stole me as 
soon as I vras born, recorded the births of all the infants 
whom he claimed to be born his property, in a book 
which he kept for that purpose." (Life of Brown, p. 13.) 

In these United States over a hundred thousand inno- 
cent children, born free according to the law of nature 
and the law of God, are annually deprived of their liberty ^ 
and from free persons are converted into slaves. 

The foregoing moral traits of the system alone are 
presented. We omit the greater number, as the fore- 
going will answer the religious object we have in view. 

6. Slavery in the United States exists as the creature 
of the civil law. 

Slavery does not exist by the law of nature, but is con- 
trary thereto. The Institutes of Justinian declare this 
very clearly: **The law of nature is a law not only to 
man, but likewise to all other animals, whether produced 
on the earth, in the air, or in the waters. From hence 
proceeds that conjunction of male and female wliich we 
denominate matrimony ; hence the procreation and edu- 
cation of children." (Inst. Lib. I, Tit. 2.) 

"By the law of nature all men from the first were 
born free." '^ Jure enim naturali omnes homines ah initio 
liheri nasccbantury (lb. Tit. 2.) " Slavery is contrary to 
natural right." " Servitus est contra naturam.'' (Tit. 3, 
Sec. 2.) 

As slavery is contrary to the law of nature, it is also 
contrary to the Divine law. The principles of Divine 



30 ' THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

truth, given to tlie pious patriarclas, as well as the case 
of Joseph, condemn slavery among them, In the bond- 
age of Egypt it is expressly condemned. No slavery 
existed imder the Mosaic code. This code prohibited, 
condemned, and excluded it. He that stole a man and 
sold him, or if he was found in his house, was to be j)ut 
to death. The service between master and servant was 
by mutual contract — could last only six years, or till 
death, by a new contract. The foreigners, or strangers, 
served during their lifetime, by similar contract. The 
year of jubilee broke up all such contracts among all the 
inhabitants of the land. None were born slaves ; and no 
such class as Grecian helots ever existed in Judea. 

In the New Testament the mission of our Savior con- 
firmed the destruction of slavery, as well as of other 
forms, in his great mission, for which he was anointed, 
or consecrated, or appointed by the divine Spirit. (Luke 
iv, 18.) Paul condemns slavery by condemning traf- 
fickers in it, whom he calls man-stealers. 

The epistles of Paul and Peter clearly condemn the 
system by the instructions given and the course laid down 
in reference to masters and slaves. And, indeed, many 
Scriptural declarations, threatenings, etc., condemn slav- 
ery in no measured terms. 

Slavery exists by unjust human laws, at variance with 
both the law of nature and the law of God. It was 
introduced among the Romans contrary to the law of 
nature, as the quotations from the civil law, already 
given, fully show. It was introduced by force and by 
law, though directly opposed to the best principles of 
justice and right contained in the Roman law. 

So also in the United States, the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence copied the principle of natural law in the civil 
law, and proclaimed, "All men are created free and 
equal." The language of Scripture is, *'God hath made 



INTRODUCTION. 31 

of one blood all men." The slave laws of tlie slave states 
are at variance with the laws of nature, with the laws of 
God, and with the principles of justice, liberty, and right, 
embraced in the Constitution of the United States, and 
of all the states. 

Nor does it at all mend the matter to say that this is 
done by law. The enactment of a law can not make 
wrong to be right. 

7. The purpose of the following pages is to show the 
relation of the Church to slavery, so as to point out the 
duties of the Church in the present state of affairs. The 
code of revelation to the Jews excluded slavery from their 
territory, as it never could be introduced. Under the 
Eoman Government slavery existed in the state. The 
Discipline of the Church under these circumstances will 
be instructive. The result, too, is marked with the best 
of consequences. In the American republic there exists 
both the Church and slavery. The several legislatures 
have more severe laws on slavery than those of the West 
Indies, or the civil code of heathen and Christian Rome. 
Emancipation, in various ways, was allowed and encour- 
aged under the Roman code, while emancipation now in 
the slave states is restrained by the most stringent laws 
ever enacted on the subject, whether ancient or modern, 
barbarian, heathen, Mohammedan, or Christian. 



32 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 



CHAPTER II. 

PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 

1. Some preliminary remarks may be necessary before 
we consider particularly the sort of service in whicb the 
patriarchs were concerned, with the approbation of the 
Almighty. 

*' God made man upright, but he hath sought out many 
inventions." In the first human family, the younger son 
was murdered by his brother. The earth was filled with 
violence, in consequence of which was the destruction 
of the flood. In the wars of the nine kings, fighting at 
once in the vale of Siddim, we have an illustration of 
the early period of human society. The captives were 
reserved for bondage. Women were subject to sensual 
gratification. Servants were bought for money, or were 
born in the house. Justinian, as we have already shown, 
maintained that all men were born free ; that slavery was 
contrary to natural law. He describes the origin of slav- 
ery in war first, and then by the 2^ower of civil law, rec- 
ognizing the children of slave mothers as also slaves. 
As far as we can trace back the records of nations, we 
find the existence of slavery in some form. We find it 
in Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The state of slavery was 
not originated by the patriarchs of the Old Testament, as 
the system existed around them in some form or other. 

Job, who was one of the patriarchs, is said to have 
had a ** very great household" — Job i, 3 — of persons 
employed in his service. Abraham also possessed serv- 
ants, and so did Isaac and Jacob. Joseph was stolen, 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 33 

sold, and "bonglit — Gen. xxxvii, 27, 28 ; xxxix, 1 — wliicli 
shows that the stealing, buying, and selling of men was 
then a common thing. The question before us is, did 
these devout patriarchs become possessed of servants 
which they obtained and treated as slaves, or as hired 
servants ; or, in other words, did these patriarchs engage 
in such thefts, sales, and purchases, as took place in the 
case of Joseph, or in the bondage of the Israelites ? Or 
did they obtain servants in a different way, in keeping 
with the principles of right that governed them in other 
respects, and which we see embraced in the Mosaic code, 
with the express purpose of preventing the existence of 
slavery in the Jewish commonwealth ? 

Our position is, that these devout patriarchs did not ob- 
tain or treat servants as Joseph was obtained and treated, 
nor did they treat servants as Pharoah did the Hebrews. 
They obtained servants on just and equitable principles, 
and treated them according to the principles of justice 
and of equal and reciprocal rights. 

2. A survey of the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek 
words rendered servant, slave, master, etc., may be worth 
attending to in this place. 

The Hebrews used but one word — ehed or ahed — to ex- 
press all the relations of servitude of every sort. 1D;% 
abad, the verb, means to labor, to work. The noun ahed, 
derived from the verb, means a laborer, a servant. It is 
applied to a person who performs any kind of service. 

The Hebrews had two words to denote female serv- 
ants. The one was ama, rendered maid-servant, bond- 
maid, maid, bond-woman, maid, etc. The other was 
shiiohcha, rendered handmaid, bond-maid, maiden, maid- 
servant. As far as the meaning of these w^ords is con- 
cerned, there is no countenance for slavery. Indeed, the 
HebrcAV language had no single word to denote a slave. 
And the context, or peculiar phraseology, must be ad- 



34 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

duced to show that slavery or slave is intended, as no 
single word will answer this pnrjDOse. 

The same remark will apply to the Greek word doulos, 
a servant, and douleo, to serve. These words are ap- 
plied to any sort of service or servants. But there is a 
Greek word which properly means a slave ; this is the 
word andrai:>odon. The Greeks used the word doulos to 
express a servant in the most general sense ; while the 
word andrajjodon j^roperly means slave. 

While the Latins used the word serviis, to denote any 
kind of a servant, they had the word manci]pium in use, 
which meant a slave only. 

The English word slave is never applied to a volun- 
tary servant. For such an exclusive word there is no 
corresj^onding one in Hebrew. Aled may signify a 
slave, but not exclusively. It properly means a serv- 
ant, but will equally apply to a bond-servant, or to the 
most honorable official character. And we may say, in 
passing, that if the Hebrews held slaves, such as ours, 
they had no word such as we have, and the Greeks and 
Latins had, signifying a slave, and nothing else. The 
foregoing are the bare conclusions on this point, which, 
we are persuaded, every competent Hebrew, Greek, and 
Latin scholar will readily assent to. 

3. The curse pronounced on Canaan is adduced in 
order to prove that slavery was instituted of God. 
** Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be 
unto his brethren." Gen. ix, 25. Calmet, on the word 
slaves, says: **Noah, to punish the affront received from 
his son, subjected him to slavery." In reply, we remark: 

It is assumed, without proof, that slavery was proph- 
esied rather than mere service to others, and individual 
bondage rather than national subjection and tribute. 

The curse pronounced neither fell on Canaan nor his 
wicked father, but upon the Canaanites. These people 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 35 

were exceedingly wicked. (Lev. xviii, xx ; Deut. ix, 4 ; 
xii, 31.) Their profligacy was great, but it was not the 
effect of the curse; it was the effect of their conduct. 
The predictio7i of crime neither brings crime into being, 
nor does it justify it. Pharoah might say with our pro- 
slavery men : ** Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land 
that is not theirs, and they shall afflict them four hun- 
dred years." Prophecy is no excuse for slavery, or any 
other wrong. Our Savior declares, *'It must needs be, 
that offenses come, but woe unto that man by whom they 
come !" 

It is not historically true that the Africans are de- 
scended from Canaan. Africa was peopled from Egypt 
and Ethiopia, and it was settled by Misraim and Cush. 
(Gen. X, 15-19.) The other sons of Ham settled Egypt 
and Assyria, and, conjointly with Shem, Persia, and after- 
ward, to some extent, the Grecian and Roman empires. 

The history of Canaan's descendants verifies the 
prophecy. They first became tributary to the Israelites ; 
then to the Medes and Persians ; then to the Macedo- 
nians, Grecians, and Romans, successively ; and, finally, 
they were subjected to the Ottoman dynasty, under which 
they yet remain. Thus Canaan has been for ages, mainly, 
the servant of Shem and Japheth, and secondarily of the 
other sons of Ham. 

As the Africans are not the descendants of Canaan, 
the assumption that their enslavement fulfills the prophecy 
is not correct. Besides, only a fraction of the Africans 
have at any time been the slaves of other nations. If it 
be objected, however, that a large majority of the Afri- 
cans have always been slaves in Africa, we answer, this 
is not true in point of fact, as the greater portion of 
Africa is not a slave country, as far as we can learn, 
though represented such by pro-slavery men ; and if they 
were even so, Canaan, in this case, could not be the 



36 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

slaves of Shem and Japlieth, as the prophecy says, but 
the slaves of each other. 

4. At the commencement of human society all gov- 
ernment was naturally patriarchal. Each family was a 
little kingdom of itself, relying on its head as the fount- 
ain of authority. Abraham seems to have been under 
the authority of Terah, his father, till he was seventy-five 
years old. (Genesis xi, 31.) In the year 1921 before 
Christ, he ''took Sarah his wife, and Lot his brother's 
son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and 
the souls that they had gotten in Haran ; and they went 
forth to go into the land of Canaan." Genesis xii, 5. 
He was a prince with regal authority, and his servants 
were his subjects. He must have been a man of consid- 
erable possessions when he had three hundred and eighteen 
servants born in his house, instructed in the use of arms. 
He had many not born in his house, and some were 
given him as a present. These, with the women and chil- 
dren, make a considerable tribe. He possessed many of 
the rights of sovereignty, in no small degree ; and he 
was even considered as a sovereign prince while dwell- 
ing on the territories of others. He was confederate w^ith 
several kings. (Genesis xiv, 13.) He was in alliance 
with Abimelech and the King of Egypt. It may be 
j^roper now to consider how Abraham obtained his serv- 
ants, and how he employed them. 

(1.) The first account we have of Abraham's servants 
is, when he and Lot removed to Canaan from Haran. 
They took "the souls that they had gotten in Haran." 
Genesis xii, 5. As Abraham left Haran on account of 
its idolatry, the souls that he and Lot had gotten, appear 
to be persons whom he had been the instrument of con- 
verting to the knowledge of the true God, and whom 
he employed in his service as a religious and civil head. 
This is confirmed by the Chaldee paraphrase which ren- 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 3T 

ders the text, *'Tlie souls of those whom they proselyted 
in Haran." Abraham took these with him from Haran 
to Canaan, that they might be under his care and gov- 
ernment, and that they might be partakers of the prom- 
ised blessings. 

Shortly after, when he was in Egypt, on account of 
the famine, it is said, "he had sheep and oxen, and he- 
asses, and men-servants and maid-servants, and she-asses 
and camels." Genesis xii, 16. 

When Abraham and Lot parted, we find their serv- 
ants were employed principally as herdsmen. (Genesis 
xiii, 7, 8.) ThiLs far we have no account of the way 
in which these servants came into the possession of Abra- 
ham or Lot, Eight years after, when Abraham went 
to war with his servants, they were composed of those 
born in his house. (Genesis xiv, 14.) Twenty-three years 
after he left Haran, before Christ 1898, we have an 
account of bought servants: "He that is born in the 
house, or bought with money of any stranger which is 
not of thy seed." Genesis xvii, 12, 27. Next year we 
learn that Abimelech gave Abraham " sheep and oxen, 
and men-servants and maid-servants." Genesis xx, 14. 

(2.) At this stage of our inquiry, it is proper to state 
that Abraham was a very devout and religious man. 
When the Lord called him to leave Haran and go to 
Canaan, it is said of him, that God blessed him, and 
made his name great ; that he should be a blessing to 
others ; and in him all the families of the earth should 
be blessed. (Genesis xii, 2, 3.) Melchisedek blessed 
Abraham, and characterized him as a righteous man. 
(Genesis xiv, 18-20.) God is said to be his "shield and 
his exceeding great reward." Genesis xv, 1. "He be- 
lieved God, and he counted it to him for righteousness." 
In regard to his family government it is said, "For I 
know him that he will command his children and his 



38 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

honseliokl after him, and tliey shall keep the way of the 
Lord to do justice and judgment." Genesis. 

(3.) We have seen that those who came with Abraham 
from Haran to Canaan, were proselytes to the true re- 
ligion, and this is further confirmed twenty-four years 
after, when God gave to Abraham the covenant of cir- 
cumcision. The servants were all required to be circum- 
cised. ''This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, be- 
tween me and you, and thy seed after thee ; Every man- 
child among you shall be circumcised. And he that is 
eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every 
male child in your generations, he that is born in the 
house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is 
not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he 
that is bought with thy money, must needs be circum- 
cised : and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an 
everlasting covenant. And all the men of his house, 
born in his house, and bought with money of the stranger, 
were circumcised with him." Genesis xvii, 10, 12, 13, 
27. 

According to the Jewish writers the father was to cir- 
cumcise his son ; and the master, his servant born in his 
house, or bought with money. If the father or master 
neglected to do this, the magistrates were required to see 
that it was done. If the magistrates neglected, then the 
person himself was obliged, when he came of age, to be 
circumcised. 

There were many adults in Abraham's family bought 
with money. We can not suppose they were bought 
without consent from those persons. For as no adults 
would be compelled to a religious life, the servants of 
Abraham were voluntary ; they were bought with their 
own consent or from themselves, and none were pur- 
chased except those who would renounce idolatry and 
worship the true God. Their admission, as parties to 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 39 

this covenant, was a recognition tliat tliey were not arti- 
cles of property, but rational, accountable beings, stand- 
ing before God on an equality with their masters. They 
were fellow-heirs wdth him of the promises. 

Circumcision establishes the religious element existing 
in the service which was rendered to Abraham. The 
original acquisition of servants, by him and Lot, in 
Haran, was by proselytism, as we have seen. On estab- 
lishing the covenant with Abraham, on his departure for 
Canaan, when circumcision was given, twenty-four years 
after, all these original proselytes were included ; so also 
were all who were afterward purchased by money, as 
additional proselytes, and their children were all included. 
It embraced every man-child ; every one born in the 
house, and those bought with money from strangers, not 
of Abraham's seed. All must be circumcised ; they must 
needs be circiimcised. The uncircumcised soul shall be cut 
off from his people; because he "hath broken God's 
covenant." All uncircumcised servants of Abraham lost 
their rights of social, civil, and religious privileges, and 
were therefore separated or driven out from the com- 
munity of Abraham; and where we have an account of 
carrying out this institution, in Genesis xxii, 23-27, it 
embraced Abraham, Ishmael, his son, and all others, as 
in the words following: "All that were born in the 
house ; all that were bought with money ; every male 
among the men of Abraham's house ; all the men of his 
house, born in the house, and bought with money of the 
stranger." Hence, all the proselytes and their children 
that came with Abraham out of Haran, and those under 
his civil and religious government, eight years after, when 
he armed his trained, or religiously instructed subjects or 
servants, to recover his nephew. Lot, and any others, 
either bought, or born, were all included in the covenant 
of circumcision. 



40 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

And this was to "be a permanent institution for the 
future, in reference to all Abraham's posterity, and any 
who would become allied to him in religious, civil, or 
domestic citizenship. The language of the institution 
of circumcision is, ** Thou shalt keep my covenant, there- 
fore, thou and thy seed after thee, in all their generations. 
Every man-child in your generations, he that is born in 
the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which 
is not of thy seed." Genesis xvii, 9-12. Thus the first 
edition of the Christian brotherhood of man was insti- 
tuted. It was to be established in the land of Canaan ; 
and indeed all the elements of the Mosaic code or service 
is embraced in the covenant made with Abraham. And 
when it was established in Canaan, it provided that no 
Israelite or stranger who joined them, could be a slave; 
though temporary service was allowed. But this was so 
guarded by the right of redemption, and the year of 
release to all Hebrews, and of the year of jubilee to all 
strangers as well as Hebrews, that slavery never could, or 
never did, get any footing among the Jews. 

5. We may here notice the various ways in which 
Abraham came into the possession of his servants. We 
put them down as follows : 1. By proselytism. 2. By 
purchase. 3. By birth in his house., or rather under his 
religious and civil government. 4. By gifts. We will 
notice each of these. 

The first subjects or servants associated with Abraham 
as their commander and religious instructor, and civil 
protector, seem plainly to be proselytes to his religion. 
Those souls which he got in Haran, as the Chaldee has it, 
were proselytes, who united with him under the covenant, 
and emigrated with him to Canaan. They are, eight 
years after, said to be trained, or rather instructed, serv- 
ants. The Hebrew word used here means consecrated, or 
devoted, meaning those who were devoted to God's serv- 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 41 

ice, and instnicted by him, in the trne religion. (Genesis 
xiv, 14.) These trained^ instructed, religious subjects, or 
servants of Abraham, composed his househokl. The 
Almighty, constituting Abraham as the person through 
whom the nations were to be blessed, says : "For I know 
him, that he will command his children and his house- 
hold after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, 
to do justice and judgment ; that the Lord may do to 
Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." Genesis 
XA^ii, 19. Here Abraham is a commander, w^ho com- 
mands or governs his children and household, or subjects. 
The object is that these may keep the way of the Lord, 
so as to do justly in all things, and maintain judgment 
or religious institutions, both in theory and practice. If 
we consider also the institution of circumcision, which ho 
and his servants, or subjects, received from God, the relig- 
ious character is the most prominent one of the service 
rendered to Abraham. And his receiving them originally 
as proselytes, and connecting with his institution religion 
to the very last, the obtaining of proselytes to the true 
religion was the foundation of the whole. And annex- 
ing to this the mode of increasing them by purchase, by 
gift, or by birth, were all secondary modes of acquisition, 
to be regulated by the religious element in all things, so 
that there is no trace of the slave system in the service 
rendered to Abraham, as it is found in the case of Joseph, 
in the case of the Hebrews in Egypt, or in Grecian, Ro- 
man, or American slavery. 

6. Some of the servants of Abraham were "bought 
with money." There is only one instance of this in the 
case of Abraham, and it is the following: "He that is 
born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, 
which is not of thy seed ; he that is born in thy house, 
and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be 

circumcised." Genesis xvii, 12, 13 ; see also 23, 27. 

4 



42 THE BIBLE AND SLAVEKY. 

From this it is inferred by pro-slavery men, that as Abra- 
ham bought with money, he might also sell for money ; 
and hence other men may now buy and sell human 
beings as slaves. 

To this we answer, that the mere fact of purchase de- 
termines nothing as to the nature of the service. It by 
no means proves that the person purchased must in future 
be regarded as property, and therefore a slave ; or that 
because a person, or rather his services were purchased or 
bought, that they could therefore be sold. Abraham may 
have purchased his servants from themselves, by paying 
them wages, or securing them protection and support ; 
or he may have bought slaves, in view of emancijDating 
them, and of bringing them to a knowledge of true relig- 
ion, or to a state which ultimately would be freedom. 
But Abraham sold no servants. On this important point 
we furnish the following observations, in order to clear it 
up fully, and rescue it from the perversions of slave- 
holders and their expositors. 

(1.) The use of the mere words to buy does not settle the 
question. It is commonly used in the sense of purchas- 
ing, as applied to land, cattle, or any sort of property. 
This is a common use, and need not be dwelt on. But its 
meaning, as applied to real estate or personal property, is 
very different from what it is, w^hen applied to human 
beings, as we shall presently show. 

(2.) God is represented as having bought his people. 
"Is not he thy father who hath bought thee?" (Deu- 
teronomy xxxii, 6. "Till the people pass over which 
thou hast purchased." Exodus xv, 16. "Eemember thy 
congregation, which thou hast purchased of old ; the rod 
of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed." Psalm 
Ixxiv, 2. "I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and 
Seba for thee." Isaiah xliii, 3. It is the same word 
used here, that is used respecting the servants of Abra- 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 43 

ham ; yet those whom God bought, pm-chased, or re- 
deemed, were not held as slaves, or regarded as jnoperty. 
Abraham may have purchased his servants to prevent 
them from being slaves. The mere act of paying a price 
for them no more implies that he continued them slaves, 
than it does that because God redeemed his people by a 
price, implies that he regarded them as slaves ; or that, 
because a man may purchase his wife or child, who have 
been slaves, that he still continues to hold and treat them 
as slaves. 

(3.) Persons were sometimes bought by paying men 
what they consider a fair compensation for their services, 
by taking their obligation to serve for a limited time. In 
this way Jacob was bought, or sold himself, and this was 
the way contemplated by the law of Moses. "If thy 
brother wax poor and sell himself." Leviticus xxv, 47. 
This is a transaction in which the purest minds can 
engage in and retrospect without guilt. This was a 
mere purchase of time, or service. It gave no right to 
sell the man again, or retain him beyond the specified 
time, or to retain him at all, could he or his friends suc- 
ceed to redeem him. It gave no right of property to the 
man, any more than to an apprentice. In no proper 
sense of the word could this be slavery. 

(4.) The word buy is sometimes applied to the manner 
in which a wife was obtained. Jacob purchased his 
wives by his labor or service, not by money. And the 
purchase of a wife by paying a dowry was common. (Ex- 
odus xxii, 17; 1 Samuel xvii, 25; Judges i, 12, 13.) 
Boaz bought Ruth to be his wife. So Hosea bought his 
wife for "fifteen pieces of silver, and for one homer of 
barley, and one half homer of barley." Hosea iii, 2. 
The wife among the patriarchs was not a slave, or sub- 
ject to the laws of property, so that her husband could 
sell her. She was Ms, to the exclusion of the claim of 



44 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

any other man, but she was his as his wife, not as his 
slave. And thus the manner of obtaining a wife by pur- 
chase, is the same in which Abraham obtained servants ; 
and this does not certainly imply slavery ; but in Abra- 
ham's case slavery is out of the question, because he was 
a just, honest, and pious man. 

(5.) Joseph is said to have hougld the Egyptians. ** Be- 
hold I have bought you this day, and your land for Pha- 
raoh." Genesis xlvii, 23. The fifth part of the produce 
was to be Pharaoh's, and the four-fifths were to be theirs. 
There was a claim on them for produce, the fruit of labor. 
Farmers who work for shares, are not on that account 
slaves. 

(6.) The case of Joseph will show the difference be- 
tween the purchase of a slave, and the purchase of a 
servant for a time, to perform labor or service. He was 
sold, not by himself, but by third persons. The Ishmael- 
ites paid for him. So did Potiphar. Yet he was stolen. 
Joseph said to the butler, "Indeed,! was stolen." The 
Ishmaelites paid for him, and so did Potiphar, yet he was 
stolen. It was theft all over. God does not approve 
of theft, especially the stealing of a man, and the pun- 
ishment for it was death. Yet slaveholders are displeased 
when they are called thieves, though their slaves are all 
stolen from themselves. The servants Avhom Abraham 
bought, he paid for as an honest man, either to them- 
selves or their owners. The objector takes it for granted 
that Abraham bought from third persons, in the charac- 
ter of owners, as in the case of American slaves. There 
is no instance in the Bible of any innocent person being 
sold, with Divine approbation, for a slave. The case 
of Joseph condemns the slave system, and Abraham can 
not be supposed to act either like Joseph's brethren, the 
Ishmaelites, or Potiphar. 

(7.) We have many instances of the purchase of 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 45 

servants for money, without a single element of slavery. 
In early times many emigrants from Scotland, Ireland, 
Germany, etc., in order to jDay their passage to America, 
hound themselves to serve in America, a certain numher 
of years, to pay their passage money. These persons, or 
rather their time and service, were sold in America hy the 
caj^tains of vessels. Many of these servants, hy industry 
and economy, after the expiration of their term of service, 
became wealthy. Many of their descendants now hold 
slaves ; and were you to remind them that their fathers 
or grandfathers were bought with money, and, therefore, 
their children must he slaves, the argument would he as 
good in this case as it would he to prove that Abraham 
held slaves. 

The mere act of hinjing servants by no means proves that 
slavery is to be the result. The purchase may amount 
to nothing else than an act of emancipation. There is 
not the slightest evidence that either Abraham, Isaac, or 
Jacob ever sold a slave, or offered one for sale, or re- 
garded servants as justly liable to be sold. There is no 
evidence that their servants descended by inheritance from 
father to son. The passage which says that Abraham 
had ** servants bought with money," can not be adduced 
to justify slavery. He must be little acquainted with the 
Bible who does not know that buying a man sometimes 
means securing a right to his services for a limited time 
by paying him a price ; and sometimes it means buying 
a man of some neighbor, who claims the right to dispose 
of him as property ; or, sometimes, it means buying a 
servant, or his services, by mutual contract ; and some- 
times it means buying a slave. The meaning of the 
word is easily known by inquiring who sold him. We 
learn that Jacob served, and that Joseph was sold for a 
slave. They were both bought, and they both served ; 
but Jacob was a free servant, and Joseph wag a slave. 



46 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

Jacob sold himself, and Joseph was sold by others, 
without his consent. To buy corn of its lawful owners 
is right, but to buy it from thieves is to partake with 
them in the guilt of theft. Jacob, by his sons, bought 
corn in Egypt, not from thieves, but from the proper 
owner. Abraham bought the services of men and wo- 
men, either from themselves or from others, in view of 
their redemption, as the facts in the case show. 

7. Some of Abraham's servants were born in his 
house, or the sons of his house. (Genesis xiv, 14.) As we 
have already seen, Abraham was a prophet while he lived 
at Haran. (Genesis xi, 31.) He diligently instructed his 
neighbors in the truths of religion, and through the 
Divine blessing made disciples or proselytes from idola- 
try to the true religion. He became a spiritual father 
to them, and they were dear to him as children. They 
became so attached to him, that they accompanied him to 
Canaan. Hence he took all '■'■ the souls he had gotten " — 
all the converts he had made to his religion — along with 
him. The servants born in Abraham's house — Genesis 
xvii, 12, 13, 23-27 — must have been the children of Abra- 
ham's first converts, who raised uj) families while in his 
service, and educated or instructed them in the knowledge 
and practice of the true religion. They were, therefore, 
said to be trained and instructed in the w^orship of the 
true God. Abraham governed or commanded these, and 
taught them and their parents to **do justice and judg- 
ment." Genesis xviii, 19. This is the only constant in- 
terpretation to comj^ort with Abraham's character for 
justice. As he would not take the least plunder taken 
in war, he certainly would not obtain servants unjustly. 
(Genesis xiv, 22, 23.) The father of the faithful would 
certainly not engage in unjust acts. Those, therefore, 
born in his house were not slaves, as they were all united 
with him in the brotherhood of the true religion by means 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 47 

of the sacrament of circumcision, as we have already 
sufficiently shown. 

8. As to the men-servants and maid-servants that 
Abraham received as a present from Abimelech — Genesis 
xiv, 14 — it is very likely that they had been slaves, but 
it does not follow that Abraham kept them slaves, nor 
is it inconsistent with his character as a just and up- 
right man. These servants, too, must be commanded by 
Abraham as a part of his household, every individual of 
whom was recjuired to "keep the way of the Lord — to do 
justice and judgment." As a part of Abraham's house- 
hold, these were treated as the other servants were. The 
others were not treated as slaves — neither were these. 

In whichever of these few ways of acquiring servants 
we consider the subject, the idea of slavery is precluded. 
The first class of them were disciples, or proselytes, or 
converts to the true religion, who ranged themselves under 
the civil, social, and religious superintendence and con- 
trol of Abraham. Those born in the house were in- 
structed in religion and treated as members of the house- 
hold of Abraham. Those purchased with money from 
themseh^es were under the same regimen ; and those re- 
ceived by gift must have fared the same with others. 

9. Abraham armed his servants — three hundred and 
eighteen in number — and led them to battle. This he 
would never have done had they been slaves. A ma- 
rauding party came and carried away captive Lot and his 
family. When Abraham learned this, "he armed his 
trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred 
and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan." Genesis xiv, 
14. Had these young men been the children of persons 
whom Abraham had dragged from their homes, would 
Abraham have armed them, and drawn them so far from 
home as Dan — the extremity of Canaan ? Would not 
these servants, while Lot was captive, and his neighbors, 



48 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

employed in defending themselves, have turned their arms 
against their master, and recovered their own and their 
parents' liberty ? But Abraham felt himself safe with 
this band of armed men, though far away from his fam- 
ily and home. Such a company could not have been 
slaves. Look at our slavery Avhen compared with this. 
Slaves with us are not allowed to keep arms of any sort, 
and the severest laws are enacted to keep them from hav- 
ing arms. Hence, slavery in the United States is a very 
different thing from the service under Abraham. Surely 
there is no analogy here between American slavery and 
patriarchal service. 

10. The servants of Abraham were such by their own 
voluntarij choice. It can not be supposed that Abraham, 
the pattern of just and righteous dealing, bought or 
retained any involuntary servants. His institution of 
service was not a system of selfish speculation, but a mis- 
sionary appointment from God. It is true, that he had 
some servants born in the house, and some bought with 
money ; but these circumstances do not prove that their 
service w^as involuntary. Abraham was a prince, as the 
children of Heth addressed him — ''Thou art a mighty 
prince among us." Genesis xxiii, 6. His servants were 
merely his subjects. He had no fixed residence ; there- 
fore, he and his subjects dwelt in tents. "By faith he 
sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange coun- 
try, dwelling in tabernacles wdth Isaac and Jacob." 
Hebrews xi, 9. His servants must have amounted to over 
a thousand at one time. It is, therefore, absurd, that a 
single individual, migrating from place to place, could 
compel so many persons to involuntary service. Cer- 
tainly such a number of armed slaves would not submit 
to compulsory service in a country where emigration was 
so common and so easy. And as to those bought with 
money, as he was "very rich in cattle, in silver, and in 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 49 

gold,'* and as benevolent as rich, lie would be led to 
redeem captives or slaves in view of benefiting them. 
His whole conduct shows that he considered his subjects 
as voluntary servants, but not slaves. He exacted an 
oath from his eldest servant, who was over his house, in 
obtaining a wife for Isaac. This we might expect of a 
prince from a subject, but not of a master from a slave. 

11. Abraham did not employ force to compel service. 
The servants, therefore, were voluntary both in the com- 
mencement and the continuance of their service. They 
emigrated from place to place with their immense flocks 
and herds, frequently fifty or sixty miles from home, yet 
there were no patrols. There was no compact to deliver 
up fugitive slaves. How easy would it haA'^e been for any 
disposed, to escape ; yet there were neither policemen nor 
military men employed to guard the servants. 

12. The social condition of Abraham's servants, their 
treatment and privileges, are at variance with the con- 
sideration that they were regarded as property in view of 
slavery. In certain circumstances, a servant bought with 
money, or born in the house, might become heir or ruler 
in the household. Such, for some years, was Abraham's 
expectation relative to one of his servants and his own 
household — Genesis xv, 3 — he actually made one of his 
servants ruler over all that he had several years before his 
death. (Genesis xxiv, 2.) Indeed, female servants were 
sometimes taken by their masters as subordinate wives ; 
and this entirely exempted them and their children from 
vassalage or slavery. This was the case with Hagar and 
Ishmael, and with the secondary wives of Jacob and 
their children. When Abraham sent an escort of serv- 
ants, headed by Eleazar, the oldest servant of his house, 
to select a wife for Isaac, the reception and treatment 
of the servant shows there was no slavery in the case. 
Laban received him courteously into the house. Laban 

5 



50 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

iingirds and feeds the camels, brings water to wasli his 
feet, and food for him and his men. The servant was 
treated as an equal, or in a manner altogether at variance 
with the treatment of slaves. Hence, we may infer that 
Abraham never held any persons as slaves or marketable 
property. The historical fact is, that he was most assidu- 
ous in cultivating the hearts and minds of all under his 
care, in the ways of wisdom, truth, and righteousness. 
(Genesis xviii, 19.) 

13. The religious patriarchs never sold their servants, 
nor gave them away, nor transferred them to their heirs 
as slaves ; and hence their servants were not slaves. 

The 23atriarchs had servants, bought with money ; but 
no case occurs in which we can infer that any of them 
sold a servant. They had servants born in their houses, 
as subjects under their religious, and civil, and social con- 
trol ; but we have no account of any of these being sold 
or transferred by them to others, or given as an inher- 
itance to their children, as either perpetual or temporary 
slaves. Wealthy masters sometimes exchanged presents. 
Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and men-servants and 
maid-servants, and gave them unto Abraham. (Genesis 
XX, 14.) But Abraham, courteous and rich as he was. 
respected the rights of his servants and subjects, and gave 
none of them to Abimelech. He only ''took sheep and 
oxen and gave them to Abimelech." Abraham gave 
gifts to his sons by Keturah and Hagar, but no servants. 
(Genesis xxv, 5, 6.) Abraham's servant, who went to 
seek a wife for Isaac, enumerates the wealth of Abraham 
thus: "The Lord hath given him flocks and herds, and 
silver and gold, and men-servants and maid-servants, jl 
and camels and asses ;" and then adds : " and unto Isaac 
hath he given all that he hath." Genesis xxiv, 35, 36. 
As Isaac was the patriarchal successor of Abraham, the 
servants, or subjects of Abraham continued under his 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 51 

care and protection as a civil and religious head. Hence 
tliese servants were employed in keeping these flocks and 
herds which they had kept for his father. There is no 
proof that any one ever had any authority over Abra- 
ham's servants hut himself and Isaac. Certainlv Isaac 
would not give them to Esau, who sold his birthright. 
Isaac gave no servants to Jacob when he went to Padan 
Aram to seek his fortune. In the present made by Jacob 
to Esau, no servants were included. (Exodus xxxii, 13.) 
In his present sent to the Governor of Egypt, no servants 
Avere included. When Jacob went down into Egypt with 
all that he had, even the servants he had brought with 
him from Padan Aram did not go with him. All the 
souls that went with him were seventy — all of whom were 
his own children and grandchildren. (Genesis xlvi, 27 ; 
Exodus i, 5.) The truth of the matter seems to be, as the 
Rabbins declare, that servants were released, or their term 
of service had expired, at the death of their masters, and 
did not descend to their heirs. 

14. It is inferred that the servants of the patriarchs 
were slaves, because they were classed with cattle, asses, 
and the like. (Genesis xii, 16.) To this we reply, that 
we may as well conclude that servants were irrational, 
because they were classed with animals. And if servants 
are property, because they, in common with cattle and 
camels, are said to be owned, possessed, etc., then a wife 
is property, for she is mentioned in connection with the 
ox and the ass. (Exodus xx, 17.) In like manner chil- 
dren must be property. 

As a general thing, the servants are evidently distin- 
guished from property. **And Abraham took all the 
substance they had gathered, and the souls that they had 
gotten in Haran." Genesis xii, 5. The herdsmen of 
Abraham and Lot are mentioned separately. (Genesis 
xiii, 7.) When the wecdth of the patriarchs is spoken of 



52 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

servants are not mentioned, but only wlien their greatness 
is described. " Abraham was very rich in cattle and 
gold." Genesis xiii, 2. Servants are not included. The 
Schechemites say, respecting Jacob and his sons, ** Shall 
not their cattle, and their substance, and every beast of 
theirs be ours ?" Genesis xxxiv, 23. There is no men- 
tion here of Jacob's servants. (Compare Genesis xxxi, 
16-18 ; Deuteronomy viii, 12-17 ; Joshua xxii, 8 ; 1 
Samuel xxv, 2 ; 2 Chronicles xxxii, 27-29 ; Job xiii, 
and xiii, 12, with Genesis xxiv, 35 ; xxvi, 13, 14 ; xxx, 
43 ; xxxii, 4, 5 ; and xxxvi, 6, 7.) 

15. We may now consider the case of Isaac. When 
the servant of Abraham proposed that Rebecca should 
become the wife of Isaac, he assured the family of Re- 
becca that Abraham would make Isaac heir to all that he 
had ; and among the possessions he enumerates ** flocks 
and herds, and silver and gold, and men-servants and 
maid-servants, and camels and asses." Genesis xxiv, 
35, 36. And before the death of Abraham, it is said that 
**he gave all that he had to Isaac." Genesis xxv, 5. 
But this must be understood as meaning that Isaac, being 
the son of his first wife, he made him his principal heir. 
For unto the sons of the concubines ''he gave gifts, and 
sent them away from Isaac, his son, while he yet lived, 
eastward, toward the east country." 

The history goes on to say, that, to some extent, Isaac, 
as successor of Abraham, exercised civil and religious 
authority over the servants, or over such of them as 
remained with Isaac, who was married thirty-five years 
before Abraham's death. Isaac, during this period, exer- 
cised subordinate control over Abraham's servants. 

Eighteen years after the death of Abraham, it is said 
of Isaac that "the man waxed great and went forward, 
and grew until he became very great ; for he had pos- 
session of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 53 

of seivants, [or husbandry — margin;'] and tlie Philistines 
envied him." Genesis xxvi, 13, 14.- Those are called 
Isaac's servants and herdsmen, who took care of his herds 
and flocks, and dug wells. (Verses 19, 20, 32.) We 
hear no more of Isaac's servants ; and he lived eighty- 
eight years after this account of his servants. (Genesis 
XXXV, 29.) We can not suppose that Isaac sold any 
of his servants, or gave them to others. Between Isaac's 
marriage and Abraham's death— a space of thirty-five 
years — Isaac probably had the control of many of Abra- 
ham's servants, or subjects. For fifty-three years after 
his marriage we learn that he had servants under his con- 
trol, or among his dependents. 

From the death of Abraham— B. C. 1822— to the 
death of Isaac — B. C. 1716 — a space of one hundred and 
six years, it is manifest that there was a great decrease of 
these servants, as we find none of them were given to 
either Jacob or Esau ; at least we have no account of any 
such thing. For Jacob became a servant himself, in his 
turn, and served Laban twenty years — fourteen for his 
two daughters, and six for the cattle — or from 1760 to 
1740 before Christ. During this twenty years' service, 
we can not suppose he would be prepared to have many, 
or any servants, as he himself had to serve. From the 
end of this term to the death of Isaac — a space of twenty- 
two years — we have no account of his having many 
servants, though he had some. 

In brief, we fail entirely, in the case of Isaac, to see 
any real slavery, although there was a service rendered to 
him similar to that which was rendered to Abraham, but 
to a more limited extent. 

16. We will next consider the case of Jacob in ref- 
erence to his servants, in order to ascertain how far 
his example may be quoted in reference to freedom or 
slavery. 



54 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

We find that in 1760 before Christ, or forty-four years 
before the death of his father, Isaac, he went to Padan 
Aram to his uncle, Laban's, at the urgent exhortation of 
his mother, Eebecca. He certainly took no servants with 
him, as the history shows. By contract with Laban, he 
agreed to be his servant for seven years, for board and 
wages. His wages, at first contract, was that he should 
have Rachel for a wife. (Genesis xxix, 15-20.) When 
deceived by Laban, in substituting Leah for Rachel, he 
made a new contract, and became the servant of Laban 
for seven years more, still in order to obtain Rachel for a 
wife. Thus he served, as a hired servant, for fourteen 
years, for his two wives. (Genesis xxix, 21-30.) At 
the end of this period Jacob's large family was unpro^ 
vided for, as he himself states. He resolves to go to his 
own country ; that he had served, as a servant, Laban, but 
that now he must provide for his family. ** And now," 
says he, ''when shall I provide for mine own house 
also ?" Genesis xxx, 30. At the conclusion of this 
period of twenty years' service, for two wives, and much 
cattle, Leah and Rachel break out into the following 
justly-indignant language against their father, who had 
counted them strangers, and had sold them, and even de- 
voured their private property. *' Are we not counted of 
him strangers ? For he hath sold us, and hath quite 
devoured also our money." Genesis xxxi, 15. 

Laban even acted arbitrarily and unjustly in changing 
the wages of Jacob. (Genesis xxxi, 7.) Jacob thus 
states the matter when he had finished his twenty years* 
hard service, just twenty-four years before Isaac's death. 
"Thus have I been twenty years in thy house: I served 
thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years 
for thy cattle ; and thou hast changed my wages ten 
times." Genesis xxxi, 41. Although Jacob was a serv- 
ant, who served for wages, partly in wives, and partly in 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 55 

cattle, lie was no slave. And althougli Laban sold his 
two daughters, he did not sell them for slaves, or even 
menial servants, hut only for wives, according to the 
general custom of the times. In accordance with another 
custom, he gave to each of his daughters a female serv- 
ant, or maid, or maid-servant. (Genesis xxix, 24, 29.) 
These, also, through the urgency of his two wives, became 
the wives of Jacob. (Genesis xxx, 4, 9.) 

Let us now see in what manner, and to what extent, 
Jacob became the possessor of servants. He certainly 
brought with him no servants to Padan Aram. At the 
end of fifteen years' service, or one year after he com- 
pleted the service for his wives, we find he had servants. 
"And the man increased exceedingly, and had much 
cattle, and maid-servants and men-servants, and camels 
and asses." Genesis xxx, 43. It is not stated how he 
came in possession of these ; but it can not be supposed 
that he obtained them otherwise than for wages of some 
sort. 

Five years after this — B. C. 1740— when he was on his 
way to his own country, we learn that he had servants 
with him, who were employed in taking care of, and 
driving his cattle, and flocks, and herds, of various kinds. 
(Genesis xxxii, 16.) 

The next and only account we have of Jacob's servants 
is on his arrival at Luz, or Beth-el. ** So Jacob came to 
Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Beth-el, 
he, and all the people that were with him." Genesis 
XXXV, 6. 

We can see nothing of slavery in the service of Jacob 
to Laban, or among the servants that Jacob afterward 
obtained. There are other events in the history of Jacob 
which fully confirm this view of the subject. 

The service, or servitude, of Esau to Jacob, will serve 
to illustrate and support this. Of the two brothers, at 



56 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

their birtli, it is proplietically declared, **And tiie one 
people shall be stronger than the other people ; and the 
elder shall serve the younger." Genesis xxv, 23. In 
the prophetic blessing of Isaac on Esau and Jacob, Isaac 
declares to Esau, ''Behold, I have made him. thy lord, 
and all his brethren have I given to him for servants." 
*' By thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy 
brother ; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have 
the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy 
neck." Genesis xxvii, 37, 40. 

The nature of the patriarchal government is here indi- 
cated. Esau was heir by primogeniture, but Jacob was 
chosen by the Almighty. The brethren of the proposed 
sovereign were not given as slaves, but as subjects, as the 
history shows. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were suc- 
cessive patriarchal rulers of a spiritual and civil govern- 
ment, that was to be continued to the end of the world. 
They were men of uncommon excellence, and the govern- 
ment they instituted, to promote true religion and good 
government, is yet but partially developed, though it is 
destined to fill the world with righteousness. 

The Edomites had dukes and kings reigning over them, 
while the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. Subsequently 
they became tributary to the Israelites, and were finally 
absorbed in the Jewish nation. Surely there is no sup- 
port for slavery here. 

If we examine the history of Jacob, after his return 
from Syria to Canaan, we shall find, that at the time he 
went down to Egypt, he had no servants, of any sort. 

At the time that Joseph Avas sold — B. C. 1729 — eleven 
years after Jacob came to Canaan, we find that his own 
sons attended to keeping the flocks and herds — Genesis 
xl — and we see no account at all of the employ of serv- 
ants, either hired, or by other contract. All that the 
history of this period furnishes is, that Judah *' had sheep- 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 57 

shearers in Timnath." Genesis xxxviii, 12. And the 
slave-trade seems to have made considerable progress 
every-where, except in the families of Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob. For Joseph's brethren, being wicked, and 
unmindful of just patriarchal law, which did not allow 
of stealing, selling, buying, or using stolen men as slaves, 
sold their brother Joseph. This was the slavery system 
as opposed to the legitimate and lawful service under the 
Abrahamic covenant, whether in his family, and among 
his descendant patriarchs, or in the Jewish and Christian 
Churches. 

Jacob had no servants, as far as the history testifies, 
when his sons went down to Egypt to buy corn, either 
the first or second time. None accompanied his sons in 
either of the journeys. And we have no account of any 
servants employed at home with Jacob, at that time, in 
any kind of service. (Genesis xlii, xliii, xliv.) 

When Jacob went down to Egypt he had no servants 
with him. The number and the name of all are given, 
and amount to seventy persons. (Genesis xlvi, 5-7 ; 
Exodus i, 5.) When presenting the Hebrews to Pharaoh, 
there was no mention of servants. (Genesis xlvi, 32.) 

The case of Jacob stands thus : When he went to 
Syria — B. C. 1760 — he had no servants, but was there 
himself a servant for twenty years. At the end of fifteen 
years we find that he had some servants. When he left 
Syria and came to Canaan, some servants accompanied 
him. Eight years after we find he had some servants. 
When Joseph was sold we find no servants in Jacob's 
possession. When he went to Egypt he had no servants. 
No one can justly conclude that Jacob ever had a slave, 
and all the historical facts indeed show the contrary. 

17. We will now consider that de23artment of patri- 
archal life, embraced in, and connected with, their sec- 
ondary wives, or concubines, which many have made a 



58 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

principal support of tlie slave system, tliongh contrary to 
the leading elements of polygamy, or concubinage ; as 
slavery sinks down into contubernium, which is the con- 
dition of the system — ignoring and rejecting marriage 
first, then concubinage, and becomes brutalized into servile 
contubernium. 

Sarah was barren. She had a ''handmaid, an Egyp- 
tian, whose name was Hagar." Genesis xvi, 1. In order 
to obtain children by her handmaid, servant, or slave, 
Sarah "took her maid and gave her to her husband, 
Abraham, to be his wife." Verse 2. His connection 
with Hagar was not proposed by himself, but by Sarah — 
Abraham yielding in this to her wishes rather than to his 
own. The custom of more than one wife was common 
in the east, especially if the first w^as barren. 

Hagar finding herself pregnant, despised her mistress, 
Sarah. On the complaint of this to Abraham, he per- 
m.itted Sarah to treat her as she thought fit. Sarah hav- 
ing used her harshly, Hagar fled from the dwelling of 
Abraham. The angel of the Lord finding her in the 
■wilderness, commanded her to return, and to submit her- 
self to her mistress. She returned to Abraham's house, 
submitted to Sarah, and was delivered of a son, whom 
she called Ishmael. (Genesis xvi, 16.) Abraham was 
then eighty-six years old. 

Fourteen years after Isaac w^as born. When Sarah 
saw some misconduct in Ishmael, she insisted that Abra- 
ham should cast out this bond-woman and her son, ''for 
the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my 
son, even with Isaac." Genesis xxi, 10. Though this 
was grievous to Abraham, yet he consented ; because the 
Almighty informed him that the succession of religion, 
and of the covenant, was by Isaac ; and that the descend- 
ants of Ishmael should be a great j)eople. (Genesis xxi, 
12, 13.) The oldest son was the legal heir. For though 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 59 

concubines, or wives of the second class^ were legitimate 
in those times, yet their children did not inherit the prin- 
cipal estate, except in the failure of legal issue. 

How Sarah came into the ]30ssession of Hagar we 
know not. All that the history furnishes was, that she 
was about fifteen years a member of Abraham's family, 
in a dependent situation, and badly treated by Sarah. It 
is likely she was of such as were given to wealthy women, 
when married, to be waiters, but on what terms we know 
not precisely. Rebecca had her nurse and damsels, or 
maids to accompany her when she was married, but we 
learn nothing more of them. Laban gave a handmaid, 
or servant, to each of his daughters, Leah and Rachel. 
(Genesis xxix, 24, 29.) These were also given to Jacob 
for wives, by Leah and Rachel, for a reason similar to 
that which led Sarah to give Hagar to Abraham to wife. 
(Genesis xxx.) These are subsequently mentioned as the 
wives or woman-servants of Jacob. (Genesis xxxiii, 1, 
2, 6; XXXV, 25, 26; xxxvii, 2; xlvi, 18, 25.) 

To show that the slave system receives no countenance 
from the concubinage of the patriarchs, we furnish the 
following reasons : 

First. These maids, maid-servants, handmaids, etc., 
could not be slaves as members of a circumcised family 
or community. We allow, that those maid-servants that 
were given to married women as their servants, may 
have been given to them as slaves ; but they could not 
remain such in the families of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob. Their privileges, as disciples, or proselytes, or 
converts to the true religion, made them members of this 
great brotherhood. Hence, they could not be continued 
permanently as slaves. So the history of the patriarchs 
say, as in the cases of Hagar, Bilhah, and Zilpali. So 
under the Mosaic code, and in Christianity. 

Second. Hagar, Bilhah, and Zilpah were wives, and 



60 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

not slaves. Being concubines, or second or secondary 
wives, they could not be slaves. The marriage bed was 
considered as inviolable, in reference to concubines, as 
to the principal wife, and its violation punished. Concu- 
binage is not the state of slavery. Contubernium is the 
state of slavery — a state not only below marriage and con- 
cubinage, but one bordering on or identical with brutality, 
or the indiscriminate mixture of the sexes. 

Third. The heirship to which the children of the sec- 
ondary wives were entitled and received, shows they were 
not slaves. Abraham, it is said, gave all that he had to 
Isaac. (Genesis xxv, 5, 6.) That is, he made him the 
principal heir. The oldest son was the legal heir. For 
though concubines, or wives of the second class, were 
legitimate in those ancient times, yet their children did 
not inherit the principal estate, except on failure of the 
legal issue. The principal right of Isaac was to the land 
of Canaan, including a confirmation of whatever was 
contained in the promises of God. To the sons of the 
concubines Abraham gave gifts. And the sons of Jacob's 
secondary wives were made partakers of the inheritance 
of their father, equally with their other brethren ; for they 
became the progenitors of four tribes of Israel, and re- 
ceived their proportion of the land of Canaan, as well as 
equal religious privileges. 

Fourth. Ishmael, Gad, Dan, Asher, Naphthali, the chil- 
dren of these secondary wives, were not slaves. There- 
fore, their mothers were not slaves, but freed- women. It 
is a matter of history that none of their sons were 
slaves. But, according to the established laws of slavery, 
in every age, it became fixed, that the child shoidd follow 
the condition of the mother. Kow, as the children were 
both born free, as indeed all are, and continued free, the 
mothers could not have been slaves. 

An objection or two may be met here. **When 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 61 

Hagar ran away from Abraham's family, tlie angel of 
God sent her hack, and instructed her to submit herself 
to Sarah." Very true. For as Sarah was the principal 
wife, and the mistress of the house, it was reasonable 
that Hagar should submit. But as Hagar was Abra- 
ham's wife, and therefore no longer a slave, she was sent 
back as a wife, though a subordinate one. She was not 
sent back as a slave, nor was she treated as a slave, other 
than the jealousy of Sarah led to bad treatment. 

The departure of Hagar after the birth of Isaac is 
urged by pro-slavery apologists. But this was a divorce, 
occasioned, too, by the jealousy of Sarah. Yet as God 
permitted, but did not approve of concubinage and di- 
vorce on account of the hardness of men's hearts, he 
permitted Abraham to divorce his wife Hagar, to gratify 
his wife Sarah, Yet the overruling providence of God 
was in this. The reasons given are, that in Isaac and 
his posterity the world should be blessed in religious 
descent from Abraham ; the son of the bond-woman 
should be a great nation. The Ishmaelites became a 
great and powerful people, and were never the slaves of 
any nation or individuals. (Genesis xxi, 12-21.) 

18. It remains to point out the contrast between the 
service under Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and slavery. 

Patriarchal service was founded on the conversion of 
the servants to the true religion. They were also thor- 
oughly instructed in the principles and practice of relig- 
ion. They were ingrafted by circumcision into the 
Church of God, and became, equally with their masters, 
partakers of the blessings of the covenant. Our slavery 
has no recognition of religion ; it forbids mental instruc- 
tion, makes no provision for religious privileges, and 
recognizes no brotherhood between master and slave. 
The maintainers of our slavery, according to the system, 
have very little regard for moral principle. 



62 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

The patriarchs employed no force, in the exercise of 
their authority as masters. Xone became their servants 
by force of any sort. We hear of no parols ; no jails 
to confine servants ; no dogs to hunt them ; no chains to 
bind them. Slavery requires all these, and the strong 
arm of the civil power to carry them into effect. 

The patriarchs did not sell their slaves. They did not 
make merchandise of them. Although they bought serv- 
ants, either from themselves, or perhaps third persons, in 
order to free them, they sold none of their servants. In 
this it differs from slavery, which always furnished for 
market those whom they held by force. 

Patriarchal service could not be slavery, because, after 
a period Df longer or shorter service, it came to an end. 
Of all the servants once in the possession of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob, not one of them were in service when 
Joseph was sold, or when Jacob went down to Egypt, 
thirteen years after. Something like the year of release, 
or of the jubilee, must have taken place. The common 
law maxim of slavery is, that the child follows the con- 
dition of the mother. By this means slavery continues 
its existence ; but on the patriarchal scheme it M'ould 
soon die out. 

Indeed, the moral character of the patriarchs forbade 
them to hold slaves. The act of selling Joseph was 
repudiated among the patriarchs. The carrying out of 
the slave system is contrary to the moral sense of all 
good men. 

Patriarchal service threw off entirely the elements of 
slavery existing around, and established a service antag- 
onistic to slavery. Its principles were justice, moral 
right, religion, and reciprocal rights. On this account 
it was directly at variance with the slave system of their 
times. 

Patriarchal service was the forerunner of freedom in 



PATRIARCHAL SERVICE. 63 

the world, as established in the Mosaic code, and in the 
Christian system. The foregoing survey of the subject 
goes to show that the principles of the Mosaic code were 
only a development of the patriarchal. Circumcision, as 
among Abraham and his servants, was a necessary part 
of the Mosaic code. This brotherhood confined service 
to six years, or to the jubilee, and thus prevented it from 
running into slavery ; while the New Testament prin- 
ciples entirely rooted out the deeply-seated slavery of 
Eome ; as they will yet overturn American slavery. 

In conclusion, patriarchal service combined none of the 
essential features of slavery. Abraham did not hold 
servants by a tenure which transformed men to mere 
things, to goods and chattels, or mere property. There 
is no restriction on mental instruction, no ignoring of 
religious teaching, or religious privileges. There is no 
annulling of the fifth and seventh commandments of the 
decalogue. There is no withholding of the laborers' hire, 
no pursuit or capture of fugitives, no mercenary trading 
of human beings, no child bound to perpetual service, on 
account of the condition of its mother. The application 
of the leading features of the service rendered to Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, would, at no distant day, uproot 
American slavery. Let no slaves be sold on any account ; 
let schools of instruction be established ; let religious 
institutions be maintained and supported by the slave 
code ; let marriage be established ; let no children be 
separated from their parents ; let parental authority be 
respected ; let no force of law, or police, or military be 
resorted to ; let any leave their masters who will. These 
regulations, all of which are imbedded in patriarchal 
service, would annihilate slavery in America, in about 
two generations, or even less. It is supremely absurd, 
then, to quote either the examples or principles of the patri- 
archs in favor of American or any other system of slavery. 



64 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

In the cases of Hagar, the damsels of Rebecca, and the 
maids given to Leah and Rachel, it may be admitted 
that originally they were slaves ; but subsequently they 
became freed-women, though they were never free per- 
sons, that is, persons born free. But under the patri- 
archal government of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they 
became as free as their circumstances would allow. Their 
children were all free. Ishmael was free, and so were the 
four sons of the two maids of Leah and Rachel. And 
they were the heads of tribes equally with the other sons 
of Jacob. The true slavery maxim is, the child follows 
the condition of the mother. In the families of Abraham 
and Jacob it was not so — the children followed the 
condition of the free father. This alone would destroy 
slavery ; and apply it to our slavery, and one generation 
would annihilate the system in America. 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 65 



CHAPTER III. 

PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 

We have shown in the previous chapter, that the service 
rendered to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by their servants, 
was not slavery. We will now show where slavery may 
be found among the patriarchs, and wall concede to the 
slaveholders and apologists for slavery, that they have 
patriarchal examples to produce for the practice of slavery. 
We allow, nay, we maintain, that there was patriarchal 
slavery, as well as patriarchal service. We find this serv- 
ice in the example of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We 
find the example of slavery in the case of Joseph. We 
will therefore take pains to show the elements of slavery 
in the case of Joseph, contrast it with the service of the 
patriarchs, and point out its identity with slavery, whether 
ancient or modern. In the case of Joseph, let us notice, 

1. The evil moral elements that were brought to act, in 
order to prepare the way for the introduction of slavery. 

(1.) The actors in this, before they engaged in the en- 
slavement of Joseph, were, at that time, under the influ- 
ence of bad principles, and of bad moral conduct. Dan 
and Naphthali, Gad and Aslier, the sons of the secondary 
wives, seem to have been principals. Joseph gave them 
offense, because he gave to his father an account of "their 
evil report." Genesis xxxvii, 2. The readiness in which 
the nine brothers engaged in the capture of Joseph, in 
the hatred, conspiracy, and cruel treatment of their brother, 
show great moral depravity at that time, as well as inhu- 
man conduct. 

6 



6Q THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

(2.) They exercised a wicked temper. Thej hated their 
brother, and envied him. "They hated him, and could 
not S25eak ]3eaceably unto him." "They hated him yet 
the more for his dreams and for his words." Genesis 
xxxvii, 4, 8. "And his brethren envied him" — verse 
11 — in consequence of his supposed future eminence over 
them. 

(3.) They, therefore, under the influence of these bad 
dispositions, determined to kill him. Murder, Avith mal- 
ice, was their first object, in order to get rid of him whom 
they hated and envied. "They conspired against him to 
slay him." Genesis xxxvii, 18. Such was the object 
the Jews had in view, in reference to Paul. They determ- 
ined to kill him. (Acts xxiii, 14.) 

(4.) They entered into a conspiracy to accomplish their 
object. When Joseph was at a distance, they determined 
to kill him, and conspired or combined for that purpose. 
Their plan of conspiracy was, "Come now, therefore, and 
let us slay him, and cast him into some pit; and we Avill 
say, some evil beast hath devoured him : and we will see 
what will become of his dreams." Genesis xxxvii, 20. 
These are the words of the conspiracy. It comprises mur- 
der with malice aforethought, or with hatred and envy. A lie 
is invented in carrying it out, and hypocrisy in complet- 
ing the deception on Jacob. The conspiracy consisted 
in the following : First, murder as the way ; second, 
this was designed ; third, hatred and envy were the dis- 
positions in exercise ; fourth, a lie was resorted to as the 
means of justification ; fifth, and hy250crisy was the clos- 
ing part of the conspiracy or j)lan. 

(5.) They carried their purposes into effect, without 
remorse, up to the very last act of putting him to death, 
but for the sake of gain they did not kill him. "And 
it came to pass, when Josej^h was come unto his breth- 
ren, that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 67 

of many colors that was on him ; and they took and 
cast him into a pit : and the pit was empty, there was 
no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread." Gen- 
esis xxxvii, 23-25. Thus, after seizing, by force, their 
innocent brother, they stripped him of his clothes, cast 
him into a pit, and then sat down deliberately to eat 
bread, as if they had done no wrong. Their act was like 
that of the remorseless transgressor, who *'eateth, and 
wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wicked- 
ness." Proverbs xxx, 20. Here we have the moral pic- 
ture of those, in all ages, who are prepared to take the 
incipient steps in enslaving mankind. First, they are, 
in general, bad, wicked men. Second, they are under 
the influence of bad dispositions, as hatred, envy, the 
love of gain, pride, ambition, or the like. Third, hence 
their plans, or, if you please, their laws of enslavement, 
can all be traced to these bad tempers, and can never 
spring from love, either to God or man. Fourth, mur- 
der, or waste of human life, or making it bitter with 
service, whether severe or easy, for gain, or for pleasure, 
is a part of the system. Fifth, by the acts of enslave- 
ment we must judge of these ; for by their fruits ye shall 
know them. 

Who, as they contemplate the conduct of Joseph's 
brethren, can fail to detect all the elements requisite to 
constitute the system of slavery, or to prepare the way 
for it ? 

First. They were, at this time, wicked men. Will not 
this character apply to all the originators of the slave 
system, from those who sold Joseph down to the present 
time ? This was the case with the Egyptians. Those 
who sell their own people in Africa, and elsewhere, are 
of this character. 

Second. The evil tempers of hatred, envy, love of 
gain in the enslavers, who succeeded Joseph's brethren. 



68 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

are pretty fair patterns for those wlio are participants in 
the oppression of their fellows now. 

Third. Murder, or sacrifice of human life, is a char- 
acteristic of the system, and has been in all ages. Sta- 
tistics could show this. 

Fourth. Look at the plans, conspiracies, and decep- 
tion in the case of Joseph's brethren. The ambushes of 
the African slave-trade may be taken as a sample. And 
the studiously constructed slave-laws of every slave na- 
tion in the world present a specimen of this. The laws 
of the United States possess this characteristic. Its fu- 
gitive-slave law, its protection to the system, and its guar- 
antees to support it are of this class. And then the laws 
of slave states are a complete net-work to surround, en- 
tangle, and retain the unwilling bondman in its meshes. 
The children of slave mothers are slaves. There is no 
father to protect ; no instructor to teach. If the slave 
attempt to escape, he is an enemy, and must be captured 
or killed. 

Fifth. And then the inactice of our system is no bet- 
ter than that of Joseph's brethren. The poor slave is 
stripped of every thing, is chained in ignorance, and 
bound down by all the laws of the system, in as forc- 
ible and cruel a manner as that which took place in the 
case of Joseph's brethren. 

2. The protest of Reuben against the conduct of his 
brethren, and his grief on account of it. 

Of the ten brethren of Joseph only one protested and 
resisted their course. The narrative goes to say, "And 
Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands ; 
and said, Let us not kill him. And Reuben said unto 
them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is 
in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him ; that he 
might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his 
father again." Genesis xxxvii, 21, 22. 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 69 

The murderous brethren, however, in the absence of 
Reuben, sold Joseph ; and Reuben expresses himself, on 
the occasion, in the following mournful strains: **And 
Reuben returned unto the pit ; and, behold, Joseph was 
not in the pit ; and he rent his clothes. And he returned 
unto his brethren, and said. The child is not : and I, 
whither shall I go ?" Genesis xxxvii, 29, 30. 

The following speech, on this occasion, is put into the 
mouth of Reuben by Josephus, which will show the views 
he entertained on the subject, as well as point out the 
great evil of the act by which Joseph was sold to the 
Midianites. 

"It Avere an abominable wickedness," says Josephus, 
"to take away the life even of a stranger. But to destroy 
a kinsman and a brother, and, in that brother, a father too, 
with grief for the loss of so good and so hopeful a son — 
bethink yourselves, if any thing can be more diabolical ! 
Consider that there is an all-seeing God, who will be the 
avenger as well as the witness of this horrid murder. 
Bethink yourselves, I say, and repent of your barbarous 
purpose. You must never expect to commit this flagi- 
tious villainy, and the divine vengeance not overtake you ; 
for God's providence is every-where, in the wilderness as 
well as in the city ; and the horrors of a guilty conscience 
will pursue you wherever you go. But put the case, your 
brother had done you some wrong, yet is it not our duty 
to pass over the offenses of our friends ? When the sim- 
plicity of his youth may justly plead his excuse, and 
make you his friends, rather than his murderers ; espe- 
cially when the ground of all your quarrel is this, that 
God loves your brother, and your brother loves God." 
(Josephus, Book II, c. 3.) 

Though this speech is put into the mouth of Reuben, 
it shows the true Jewish views of this transaction by 
their acknowledged historian. 



70 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

We have the protests of the best men the world ever 
saw against the acts of Joseph's brethren, and against 
slavery. In this are united clergj^men and laymen, an- 
cients and moderns. In our work on the " Sinfulness 
of Slavery" — Vol. II, p. 167-243 — we have given an 
ample list of these protesters ; and to this and other such 
works we must refer our readers, as our space will not 
allow their insertion. These, too, comprise both slave- 
holders and non-slaveholders. It is also remarkable that 
the plea of Judah to sell Joseph for money, and save 
the imputation or trouble of killing him, is a fair speci- 
men of the best arguments of pro-slavery men. The sub- 
stance of their pleas is, abolitionism, fanaticism, our 
property, our institutions, civil law, good feeding, good 
clothing, good nursing, etc. 

3. The commutation of slavery for death. 

The policy of Reuben was, that they should not kill 
him, in order that he might deliver him out of their 
hands and restore him again to his father. This was 
benevolent and praiseworthy, but was rejected. This was 
an abolition argument, and could not prevail. 

Let us notice the argument of Judah, the sale of Jo- 
seph, and the deception on Jacob. Judah adduced a 
pro-slavery argument, and that succeeded. It is as fol- 
lows : **And Judah said unto his brethren. What profit 
is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood ? Come, 
and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our 
hand be upon him ; for he is our brother and our flesh. 
And his brethren were content and hearkened." Genesis 
xxxvii, 26, 27. 

Look at Judah's argument against killing Joseph. First. 
It was not expedient to kill him, because this would shed 
blood ; and they must lay violent hands on him in order to 
kill him, and this, too, would be either wrong or inex- 
pedient. Second. He is our brother, and our flesh ; not 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 71 

only a human being, with the feelings of flesh like our- 
selves ; but he is our natural brother, the son of the same 
natural father with ourselves. Third. There is no profit 
in killing him. 

Next see his reason for making him a slave. 1 . They 
would have ^j?*o/?if in selling him ; though the price was 
only twenty pieces of silver, or about twelve or fifteen 
dollars. 2. It would be humane to sell him ; because 
they would not be guilty of murder, so that they would 
avoid the revolting acts of shedding blood, and using 
their own hands in doing it. 

The argument for sale prevailed. The reasons against 
the murder were satisfactory, and the arguments for sale 
conclusive. On the one hand, they could exercise human- 
ity so as not to be reduced to the necessit}'- of becoming 
the bloody executioners of their own natural brother by 
their own hands, and at best it was profitless. On the 
other hand, they could just sell him, and thus avoid all 
this, and then they would have some price or benefit ac- 
cruing. The argument prevailed ; his brethren were con- 
tent or satisfied with the profound logic of Judah. And 
to facilitate the matter, the merchants who then dealt 
in goods and chattels personal, were just in sight, and 
presently the bazar was closed in the manner following : 
" And there passed by Midianites merchantmen ; and they 
drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph 
to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver : and they 
brought Joseph to Egypt." Genesis xxxvii, 28. 

Notice now the deception practiced on Jacob by this 

transaction. **And they took Joseph's coat, and killed 

a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood : 

i and they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought 

i it to their father ; and said. This have we found : know 

now whether this be thy son's coat or no. And he knew 

, it, and said, It is my son's coat ; an evil beast hath 

I 



72 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

devoured him : Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces." 
Genesis xxxvii, 31—33. 

Observe here the theft in Joseph's case. Joseph says, 
"For, indeed, I was stolen out of the land of the He- 
brews." Genesis xl, 50. This was man- stealing, a capital 
crime. 

The selling of Joseph was a great sin. "When his 
brethren saw the act in its true light they confessed, 
"We are verily guilty, concerning our brother, in that 
we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, 
and we would not hear ; therefore is this distress come 
upon us." Eeuben then said, " Spake I not unto you, 
saying, Do not sin against the child ; and ye would not 
hear? therefore behold also his blood is required." Gen- 
esis xlii, 21, 22. After the death of Jacob, Joseph's 
brethren were afraid that "Joseph will peradventure hate 
them, and will certainly requite them all the evil which 
they did unto him." And they sent a messenger to 
Joseph to plead for the fulfillment of Jacob's injunction 
to them. "Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy 
brethren, and their sin ; for they did unto thee evil ; and 
now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants 
of the God of my father." They "thought it for evil 
against Joseph." Genesis 1, 15, 17, 20. Their act was 
a sin, a tresjmss against the principles of right. It was 
a deliberate act ; it was meant for evil. In consequence 
they were guilty, and stood in need of pardon. 

These are the prominent points in the enslavement of 
Joseph : 1. The commutation of slavery for death. The 
reasons against the murder were, that they would be 
relieved from shedding the blood of their brother with 
their own hands ; and that there would be no profit in 
doing so. The reasons for the sale were, they would 
profit by it, and make money by it ; and it would be a 
humane course. In a word, slavery is the more j)rofitable 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 73 

way ; it is the more liumane way. 2. His sale and his 
price. 3. The deception in the affair, and the means of 
carrying it out. 4. The theft, effected by violence of as- 
sault and battery. 5. And the sin. 

All these evil elements in the enslavement of Joseph 
are to be found in every slave system that ever existed in 
the world ; and they exist in our slave system to an ex- 
tent equal to, or exceeding, any other. The following 
observations will present this, we think, in a convincing 
light : 

(1.) The capture of men by theft, violence, or war, 
and holding men liable to death, has been the principal 
source of slavery in the world, in all ages. Personal 
violence and theft in individual cases has always been 
an element of slavery. Such cases are constantly occur- 
ring in our country. Under the covert of slave laws in 
the United States, multitudes born free, according to law, 
are re-enslaved in various ways which we have not time 
to detail. War in olden times, as a national business, 
gave rise to national slavery, as Justinian declares : "The 
law of nations is common to all mankind, and all na- 
tions have enacted some laws, as occasion and necessity 
required ; for wars arose, and the consequences were cap- 
tivity and slavery ; both which are contrary to the law 
of nature; for by that law all men are born free.'* (Inst. 
Lib. I, Tit. 2, Sec. 2.) 

Our mode of enslaving children by law is perfectly 
identical in principle with the use of violence and theft 
in the case of Joseph. Violence made Joseph a slave. 
Our violent laws make children slaves. The work done 
is precisely the same ; namely, a free person is made a 
slave. The mode is different, as if one would murder a 
man by slow torture, and another would do it by the 
easy way of shooting him through the head or heart. 
Our Christian way is different from the pit and the sale, 



74 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

of Joseph's bretliren ; but the accomplished deed is the 
same, only our way is the worse way. Our mode is to 
steal the child as soon as born, and then deny him any 
instruction or means of moral, religious, or mental im- 
provement during life. But Joseph had seventeen years 
of good education under his father before he ^vas stolen. 
If our slaves had seventeen years of paternal instructions 
their case would be different. But our poor slaves have 
no fathers ; and their mothers have their hands tied, and 
their mouths sealed ; they are themselves in chains. 

(2.) The commutation of slavery for death is unjust, 
and founded on unjust principles. 

Blackstone furnishes on this subject the following ar- 
gument : 

''The conqueror, say the civilians, had a right to the 
life of his captive ; and having spared that, has a right 
to deal with him as he pleases. But it is an untrue posi- 
tion, when taken generally, that by the law of nature or 
nations a man may kill his enemy : he has only a right 
to kill him in particular cases — in cases of absolute 
necessity for self-defense ; and it is plain this absolute 
necessity did not subsist, since the victor did not actually 
kill him, but made him prisoner. War itself is justifiable 
only on principles of self-preservation ; and, therefore, 
it gives no other rights over prisoners but merely to dis- 
able them, from doing harm to us by confining our per- 
sons : much less can it give a right to kill, torture, abuse, 
plunder, or even to enslave an enemy when the war is 
over. Since, therefore, the right of making slaves by 
captivity depends on a supposed right of slaughter, that 
foundation failing, the consequence drawn from it must 
fail likewise." (1 Blackstone's Com., 423.) 

(3.) The small profit of Joseph's sale, though only 
twelve or fifteen dollars, was a consideration. The value 
of our slaves is far beyond this. By the profits of their 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 75 

sweat and toil tlieir masters and their families are fed, 
clothed, and maintained. Slaves now sell at from five 
hundred to one thousand dollars each. Perhaps eight 
hundred dollars may be an average. This is over fifty- 
times as much as the cost of Joseph. Our slaves, too, if 
they are religious, are more valuable than others. And 
almost white, handsome, female slaves sell, especially at 
private sales, at immense prices. Joseph's brethren, 
however, had one or two disadvantages in their busi- 
ness. They had to use personal violence to steal and 
seize Joseph. We raise or breed our slaves, and newly- 
born babes need no chains ; and they are easily raised, as 
they need no schooling or trades, and therefore can work 
all the time that other children go to school or are ap- 
prentices. The annual profits of the slaves is consider- 
able ; and the entire value of the chattels of this sort is 
very great. In 1790 Mr. Gerry valued the slaves at 
$10,000,000 ; in 1840 Mr. Clay valued them at $1,200,- 
000,000. At present the value of over 3,000,000 must 
be about $2,000,000,000. The income of the property 
at six per cent, would be 83,300,000 annually — a con- 
siderable advance from the time of Joseph. What would 
our slaveholders think of fifteen dollars for a stout boy 
of seventeen years of age? They could get $1,000 for 
such. 

(4.) On the sale of Joseph, as an example, the United 
States have somewhat improved. With us, fathers sell 
their own children, and brothers and sisters sell their own 
brothers and sisters. And if fathers, and brothers, and 
sisters shrink from this sometimes, as they really do, the 
law, in its regular course of procedure, does it for them 
by the sheriff and auctioneer. An entire Church of par- 
ents and children, belonging to the late H. R. W. Hill, 
were recently sold in New Orleans, the narrative of which 
is given in another place. The United States sometimes 



^a 



6 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

goes to market, and makes purchases and sales to save 
the loss of a bad debt. We know a large family of 
children sold by a grandfather to his own son, who was 
the father of the children. Thus the son purchased from 
his own father his children, and the mother of his chil- 
dren, the grandfather selling coolly his grandchildren, the 
offspring of his slave. He attempted afterward to repur- 
chase one of the grandchildren, but in vain, as his son 
needed her for a housekeeper ; and this was all according 
to law. It is believed, as a matter of history, that some 
descendants of Jefferson are now slaves. Our traders, 
wholesale and retail, make selling slaves a regular 
business. 

(5.) Joseph was stolen. This transaction is repre- 
sented, in Genesis xlii, 21, 22, as a crime worthy of death, 
in those guilty of it — as a self-evident and enormous 
crime against the laws of nature. Joseph says he was 
stolen. (Genesis xl, 15.) The wrong inflicted on him 
was an act of stealing, or of theft ; and as he was a man, 
that crime was man-stealing — precisely the crime with 
which our slavery is justly charged. The Larger West- 
minster Catechism, on the eighth commandment, places 
among the things forbidden, ''theft, robbery, man-steal- 
ing, and receiving any thing that is stolen." Bishop 
Hopkins, of England, in his Exposition, defines theft 
thus : "Theft is an unjust taking or keeping to ourselves 
what is lawfully another man's. He is a thief who with- 
holds what ought to be in his neighbor's possession, as 
well as he who takes from him what he hath formerly 
possessed." Slaveholders are called by St. Paul — 1 Tim- 
othy i, 9, 10 — man-stealers, or the stealers, venders, or 
holders of men, as slaves ; and that man-stealer, or slave- 
dealer, or possessor of the property — except a possessor 
in trust — in guilt and sin, is synonymous with thief, is 
plain, from Exodus xxi, 16, where the thief, the vender. 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 77 

or holder of a stolen man, is equally guilty, and to be 
punished with death, equally with murderers, or those who 
strike or revile their parents. The 2)oss€Ssio7i is prin- 
cipally criminal, because he who possesses the stolen 
property prevents the true owner from enjoying it. 

The moral law makes no difference between the first 
act of the theft and the willful possession of a stolen 
article. '' Whoso is partner with a thief, hateth his own 
soul." Proverbs xxix, 24. The crime of theft consists 
in taking, or having that which the moral laAv recognizes 
as the property of another ; and this theft is robbery, 
because it involves fraud and violence without the shadow 
of justice. While men hold slaves as 2^ro2:)erty — except 
in trusty in order to restore it — no other terms will as well 
designate them as man- stealer, thief, slaveholder, slave- 
dealer, or the like ; and such are the very words which the 
Holy Ghost employs, both in the Old and New Testa- 
ments : "And they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites." 
Genesis xxxvii, 28. ** For indeed I was stolen away 
out of the land of the Hebrews." Genesis xl, 15. 

These passages show that he who sells or buys one 
man from a third person, except to ransom him, is a 
thief. So, in Deuteronomy xxxiv, 7, it is clear that he 
who steals, makes merchandise of, or sells a man, is 
called a thief. 

(6.) The enslavement of Joseph is, in Scripture, pro- 
nounced sinfid. If the original act of enslavement was 
sinful, the continuance of this state, by the infliction of 
wrongs, the deprivation of rights, as well as the great 
moral principles involved, can not be right. At this 
j time, human beings are deprived of liberty, of education, 
I of the rights of conscience, and are subject to great and 
; cruel wrongs ; and of course, as the nature of right and 
wrong does not change, what was wrong then must be 
wrong now. It is in vain to evade the charge of moral 

1 



78 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

wrong in our slavery, any more than it was in the case 
of Joseph. 

Take the two following examples of wicked wrong, 
from Brisbane on " Slaveholcling Examined," page 207 : 

*' A slave woman was brought before the Church, for 
trial, on account of pregnancy. But she escaped censure 
because she testified that her master met her in the field 
and forced her. There was no law to protect her." 

** Sam, a slave, in consequence of severe treatment, ran 
away. His master stripped him, cut off one of his ears, 
whipped him on the bare back till it was laid open in 
deep gashes from the neck to the hip, and then applied 
pepper and salt to the wounds. For this there could be 
no redress by law. His master was in respectable so- 
ciety." 

(7.) Nor does the deception practiced in the case of 
Joseph at all exceed that which is brought into requisi- 
tion in our own slave system. Jacob, for a time, was 
deceived, but the issue detected all this. Our system 
operates wisely with the slaves. There is the authority 
of the United States, assisting the slave states, with the 
Fugitive- Slave law, as a means, and the army, navy, 
and Supreme Court of the United States, guaranteeing 
and upholding, by statute, constitution, and judicial de- 
cisions, the system of slavery. Then there are the con- 
stitutions and laws of the slave states, which seize every 
child, as soon as born, and, regardless of the laws of 
nature, make the innocent a slave for life. 

The masters have almost supreme control over the 
slaves. There are no schools to teach them, and no 
liberal arts, or respectable pursuits, to elevate them. If 
they attempt to run away, the blood-hounds are let loose 
on their scent, or more bloody men become the hunters. 
There is a conspiracy against them. There is a complete, 
organized system of oppression ; and emancipation is a 



PATHIARCHAL SLAVERY. 79 

prohibition, in most cases. Tlie petty conspiracy of 
Joseph's brethren, in reference to one person, is almost as 
nothing compared to the legislative, judicial, and execu- 
tive system, which is brought to bear against three millions 
of persons, born free, but now enslaved men, women, 
and children of the United States. 

4. The slave-dealers, in the case of Joseph, and also 
our own dealers, may now be considered. 

Our system of slavery has its model in the seizure and 
sale of Joseph by his brethren to the Ishmaelites, and by 
the latter to Potiphar. His brethren stripped him, and 
sold him to the Ishmaelites. (Genesis xxxvii, 23.) The 
Ishmaelites, or Midianites, who were merchants, and dealt 
in the purchase and sale of human beings, as well as in 
spicery, balm, myrrh, etc., bought him from his brethren. 
(Genesis xxxvii, 25, 28.) The Midianites brought him 
down to Egypt, and sold him to Potiphar. (Genesis 
xxxvii, 36 ; xxxix, 1.) 

Here is a case described at length, of the forcible seiz- 
ure, or kidnapping, of one person by others ; of his sale 
as an article of merchandise for money ; and a subse- 
quent sale of him as property to another ; and all exactly 
as our slave seizures, and sales, and purchases are now 
made. The transaction is theft, and a sin, worthy of 
death by the law of God. 

The seizures and sales, with us, have taken place ac- 
cording to constitution, statutes, and judicial decisions, and 
with much more deliberation than in the case of Joseph. 
Our slave laws, too, just in proportion as Christianity 
has spread in the country by the religious, have continued 
to become more stringent and severe, to counteract the 
exercise of moral principle. And the examples in the 
slave-gangs, and barracoons, have left the case of Joseph 
in the distance ; and, indeed, it will be difficult to say 
whether the African piratical trade, or our home trade, in 



80 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

"breeding, sales, transfers, etc., exceeds in atrocity, con- 
sidered in themselves. But ours far exceeds theirs in evil, 
as it is an iniquity framed by law, done deliberately, by 
constitution, by statute, by judicial decisions ; at the 
mouth of the cannon, or musket, by the blood-hounds, 
the auctioneer, the sheriff, and backed by the army and 
navy, the laws of the United States, the executive, and 
supreme judiciary. 

Some specimens of our home trade, in slaves, will 
show clearly that our regular legalized traffic is, in no 
respects, lower than that practiced by Joseph's brethren 
and their successors in the trade. 

The enslavement of brothers and sisters, by brothers 
and sisters, and even by fathers, is a lawful part of our 
trade, and no abuse of it, more or less. Specimens 
enough could be given. But almost every mulatto in the 
United States is a proof, not of opinion, but oi fact, to 
sustain this ; yet we j)ass it by, leaving it as a subject 
of reflection, as there are many things in this which 
we are forbidden to speak out on, through downright 
shame. 

Then there is our practice of slave-growing, that is also 
a lawful business, and no abuse of the system. For 
slavery rejects marriage, and adopts the old heathen 
maxim, the child follows the condition of the mother. If 
there is any thing in Joseph's case worse than this, we 
are much mistaken. 

And as to seizing persons, and making slaves of them, 
conveying them from one part of the country to another, 
in chains, and under escorts, selling families apart, etc., 
we can scarcely imagine any thing in the case of Joseph 
which will compare with it. We will here furnish some 
specimens of the improvements made in the commerce 
of slavery, which our times may now boast of. 

Of the mode of catching slaves by blood-hounds, or 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 81 

negro dogs, we give the following specimen, from the 
Lexington Democratic Advocate, a Mississippi journal. 
We give this without a word of comment : 

''NEGRO DOGS. 

"I would inform the citizens of Holmes county that 
I still have my negro dogs, and that they are in good 
training, and ready to attend to all calls for hunting and 
catching runaway negroes, at the following rates : 

" For hunting per day, five dollars ; or if I have to 
travel any distance, every day will be charged for, in 
going and returning, as for hunting, and at the same 
rates. Not less than five dollars will be charged, in any 
case, where the negroes come in before I reach the place. 
From fifteen to twenty-five dollars will be charged for 
catching, according to the trouble. If the negro has 
weapons, the charge will be made according to the diffi- 
culty had in taking him, or in case he kills some of the 
dogs, the charge will not be governed by the above rates. 
I am explicit to prevent any misunderstanding. The 
owner of the slave to pay all expenses in all cases. 

"I venture to suggest to any person having a slave 
runaway, that the better plan is to send for the dogs 
forthwith, when the negro goes off, if they intend sending 
at all, and let no other person go in the direction, if they 
know which way the runaway went ; as many persons 
having other negroes to hunt over the track, and failing 
of success, send for the dogs, and then perhaps fail in 
consequence to catch their negro, and thus causelessly 
fault the dogs. Terms, cash. If the money is not paid 
at the time the negro hunted for is caught, he will be 
held bound for the money. I can be found at home at all 
times, five and a half miles east of Lexington, except 
when hunting with the dogs. John Long. 

*' February 14, 1855." 



8^; THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

The following is an account of our slave traffic, in one 
of its most favorable forms, under the best religious and 
mental culture Avhich the south furnishes; and yet the 
system turns out to be more at variance with right than 
even the case of Joseph itself. 

Mr. H. E. W. Hill resided long in Nashville, Ten- 
nessee ; was a zealous, active, and very liberal member of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He spared no 
pains or expense to have his slaves instructed and bene- 
fited by religion. As he became very wealthy, in the 
pursuit of commerce, several large plantations, with the 
slaves on them, near New Orleans, where the family re- 
sided, came into his possession. He built churches on the 
plantations, supported missionaries, and did every thing 
he thought best to make them intelligent and happy. 
Last year — 1854 — he died, and left his vast estate to his 
son, after having been munificent during life, and at 
death, to benevolent objects. After his death his negroes 
were all, or the greatest part of them, sold, at public 
sale. 

The following is the advertisement which appeared in 
the National Intelligencer, giving notice of the sale : 

" Will be sold at auction, at Bank's Arcade, on Maga- 
zine-street, in the city of New Orleans, at 12 o'clock, on 
Tuesday, January 16th, 1855, the slaves at the same hour 
on Thursday, January 18th, and the following days, for 
the account of the estate of the late H. K. W. Hill, with- 
out reserve, all that extensive and valuable sugar estate, 
known as the Live-Oak Plantation, etc., including two 
hundred and sixty choice plantation-slaves, accustomed 
to the culture of sugar and cotton, and considered to be 
the best gangs in the south, and comprising all the requi- 
site mechanics, such as sugar-makers, engineers, black- 
smiths, coopers, carpenters, bricklayei*s, choice house- 



PATKIARCIIAL SLAVERY. 83 

servants, cooks, and field hands, and are to be sold in 
families and singly, by a descriptive catalogue. The 
slaves are guaranteed in title only." 

The sales took place in New Orleans. Handbills were 
printed with large black letters, and the words mechanics, 
seamstresses, cooks, etc., stood out prominent. Adver- 
tisements and editorial notices appeared in the papers. 
Circulars, on fine paper, were printed, giving particulars 
of each one to be sold, all being duly numbered. The 
following is the description of the sale, given by a cor- 
respondent of the New York Tribune, February 16, 1855 : 

"On the morning of the sale I wended my way to 
Bank's Arcade, determined to witness the scene. I found 
the Arcade to be a very large building, situated in the 
very center of business, and used as a hall for mass meet- 
ings of the various political parties, and it is said will 
accommodate five thousand people on such occasions. 
A large bar or counter, about one hundred feet in length, 
is placed directly opposite the entrance, and some half a 
dozen tenders are constantly occupied in dealing out 
poison at a dime a drink. Opposite to the bar the poor 
negroes were marshaled into line ; the men and boys were 
uniformed with short jackets made of cottonade, pants 
of the same material, hickory shirts, black brogans, and 
tarpaulin hats. The women were all clad in common 
calicoes, and a common handkerchief tied around the head. 
All the slaves were labeled, a tag or card being tied to the 
breast of each, giving the name, age, and number of the 
negro, so as to correspond with the printed catalogue. 

"It is impossible for me to give you a faithful descrip- 
tion of the scene, as no pen can picture the horrors of it. 
One hundred and seven poor slaves were there assembled 
together for the last time in this world. They had for 



§4 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

many years all been living on Mr. Hill's plantation, as 
one family. Most of them were brought np by Hill. 
They had always been blessed with a kind master. They 
were all members of one Church, which had been estab- 
lished among themselves. Old men and women, over 
seventy years of age — some of them blind — were to be 
separated from their children and grandchildren ; hus- 
bands about to be torn from their wives ; children sold 
into slaveiy, never to know a mother's love, or have a 
father's protection and care. In a few hours the fate 
of all would be decided. All the slaves were crying ; 
many of them were apparently calm in their sufferings, 
and had a hope that they might fall into the hands of a 
kind master; but others exhibited their feelings in violent 
outbursts of passion. One old woman, who was put 
down in the catalogue as number 40, Daliah, age sixt}^- 
six years, milk-woman, etc., was in great distress, and 
several of the small children were clinging to her and 
moaning, half frightened to death, and one of her own 
sons, about thirty- six years of age, was receiving her 
farewell blessing. With her left arm clasjDing him to 
her bosom, and her right hand placed on his head, she 
repeated these words, ' Bob, I shall never see you again, 
never, never ! 0, God ! it will break my heart ! Your 
poor old mother will die !' Other poor slaves were 
crowding about the poor old woman, all anxious to take 
leave of one who had been with them from their youth 
up, and to receive her blessing. She appeared to be re- 
garded as a kind of mother to them all. I noticed 
among the spectators many northern men who were 
here on a visit, and many a sympathetic tear was shed 
by them. 

"At twelve o'clock, the auctioneer mounted the stand. 
On either side of him Avere placed plans of real estate, 
and large posters of future sales of slaves and other prop- 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 85 

erty. Behind him were two clerks seated at a table, to 
take down the names of the purchasers. On the table 
were placed a bottle of brandy and a tumbler, for the use 
of the auctioneer, who glories in the name of Beard. 
Before commencing the sale, this Mr. Beard smiled ap- 
provingly on the audience, and delivered the following 
address : * Gentlemen buyers, I am about to offer you 
some of the most valuable property ever put up, at auc- 
tion, and on most favorable terms — a credit of one year. 
These slaves are very choice, and all brought up by our 
lamented fellow-citizen, Harry Hill. Most of the women, 
as you will notice, are pregnant, and of good stock. I 
must impress it upon your minds that these slaves are 
exhibited under great disadvantage, as, after being worked 
very hard, they were hurried on board the steamer, and 
have had a hard time of it. They Avill look twenty -five 
per cent, better after being here a few days. Gentlemen 
buyers, before I sell this gang of negroes, I will put up 
three boys, who were sold at the last sale, but the papers 
of the purchasers were not satisfactory to us. It is, gen- 
tlemen, a credit to New Orleans, that, out of the large 
number of slaves sold on last Friday, only three of the 
purchasers have been rejected. It speaks well for the 
prosperity of our state.' " 

It is due, however, to Mr. Hill, to state that he made 
particular request that his slaves should be kept all to- 
gether, if possible ; and in case of their being sold, that 
husbands and wives should not be separated. On this 
account the husbands and wives were sold together. 
There is at least one protest against slavery, in making 
this arrangement. When Bob and his wife were sold for 
sixteen hundred and seventy-five dollars, he was about to 
bid good-by to his mother, but was hurried out of the 
room, just as his mother was put on the block. The 



86 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

auctioneer praised her as a "good and motherly old 
wench — good and very useful to take care of children 
and milk cows." In this way the whole Church was 
disposed of. 

5. The grief of Jacob when Joseph was stolen, and 
for thirteen years after, is no more than a medium exam- 
ple of what our slavery inflicts on parents and relatives, 
by tearing their nearest friends from them. 

When Jacob heard the deceitful narrative about Joseph, 
he gave vent to the feelings of a father in the following 
mournful strains : "And Jacob rent his clothes, and put 
sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many 
days. And all his sons and his daughters rose up to 
comfort him ; but he refused to be comforted ; and he 
said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son 
mourning. Thus his father wept for him." Genesis 
xxxvii, 34-36. 

The hypocrisy and blunted feelings of Joseph's brethren 
on this occasion, have their correspondence in the cold- 
blooded indifference with which some, not all, slavehold- 
ers look on when the nearest relatives are separated. So 
revolting is this law of slavery, that many will never, in 
their lifetime, allow of such separations. But after their 
death the law of slavery knows neither justice nor mercy. 
The revolt of feeling, on such occasions, is a moral pro- 
test against the unprincipled atrocity of slavery. 

The grief of Jacob when Simeon was detained in Egypt, 
and when Benjamin was called for to go to Egypt, pre- 
sents another phase of the slave system. Jacob had lost 
one child, but now others were in danger of being torn 
from him. Hear his lamentation : "Me have ye bereaved 
of my children : Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and 
ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against 
me. My son shall not go down with you ; for his brother 
is dead, and he is left alone : if mischief befall him in 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 87 

tlie way in the wliicli ye go, tlien shall ye bring down my 
gray hairs with sorrow to the grave." Genesis xlii, 36, 
88. When Jacob was urged again to let Benjamin go, 
he asked, "Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell 
the man whether ye had yet a brother?" Genesis xliii. 
And when finally persuaded to let Benjamin go to Egypt, 
he said, after having advised them to take double money, 
"Take also your brother, and arise, go again unto the 
man : and God almighty give you mercy before the man, 
that he may send away your other brother, and Ben- 
jamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved." 

How strikingly does the history of Jacob's sufferings 
find a counterpart in our slave system ! One child is first 
taken and sold, and then another ; and the distracted 
parents can not tell how soon the last will be taken away. 
Thus poor slave parents, especially mothers, are left to 
the mercies of a continued succession of bereavements 
till their death. The examples of this are so numerous 
that we are at a loss to select specimens. We give, how- 
ever, a few. 

The following was communicated to us by Rev. H. C. 
Boyers, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Maysville, 
Ky., under date of January 13, 1855, and published in 
the Western Advocate, of January 31, 1855. It is the 
experience of a colored woman, taken down as she uttered 
it in love-feast : 

"I have great pleasure in the service of my God, and 
I've none any whar else. Many years ago I started for 
heaven, but I had none to take me by the hand to lead 
me, or teach me the way. Master and mistis was wicked, 
and nobody near whar I lived loved the Lord Jesus. I 
lost my child, and God showed me I Avas a sinner, and 
had a wicked heart ; and something told me I must pray ; 
but I could not pray. T asked Master Jesus to show me 



88 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

how to pray, and then I could pray ; and tlie more I 
prayed the worse I got, and at last I thought I would 
die. I was sick of sin, and I went off to a distant 
neighbor's house, and told an old Methodist sister how I 
felt ; and she knowed what was the matter with me, and 
told me to look, by faith, to Jesus Christ, and he would 
save me. And I did ; and, thank God ! he did save me 
from all my fears and sins ; and I was joyful. But I've 
had to wade through deep waters and fiery trials since 
then. Some of my children have died, and some have 
been sold down south, and my poor, dear husband, too, 
was sold, and I am almost alone now. I'll never see 
them on earth any more, but I hope to meet them in 
heaven. Brethren, pray that my faith fail not." 

The lamentation of Daliah, one of Mr. Hill's slaves, 
as given in the account of the sale, is as touching as any 
thing uttered by Jacob. Daliah, number 40, of several 
hundred, Avith one arm around her son's neck, and the 
other on his head, despairingly said : 

"Bob, I shall never see you again; never, never! 
0, God ! it will break my heart ! Your poor old mother 
will die !" 



tt 



Mr. — had a slave of light complexion, whom he took 
for his wife. She lived in his house as his wife, and had 
several children by him. The laws of the state — South 
Carolina — forbid emancipation ; she therefore was still 
legally his slave, although not treated as such. Her 
master, who in the sight of God was her husband, became 
involved in debt. His wife and children were levied on 
and sold to satisfy a claim. A physician, himself a 
prominent member of a Baptist Church, and a son of 
a Baptist minister, purchased them, and the husband and 
father was not allowed to visit them on their master's 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 89 

plantation. The master continued a respected member 
of the Church." (Brisbane's Slaveholding Examined, 
P- 217.) 

"A prominent southern minister, when invited to the 
pastoral charge of a leading Church in a northern city, 
brought with him a slave, and retained her in his service, 
after selling her children to a planter in Georgia." (Ibid., 
p. 204.) 

6. The distress and sufterings of Joseph are such as 
slaves are no strangers to. 

Joseph was seized violently by his brethren, stripped 
of his coat, put into a pit, kept there for a time, and then 
sold to strangers, and, therefore, separated from his father 
and home, and transformed from being a beloved son to 
be the slave of such master as might fall to his lot. 

The anguish and distress of Joseph are thus described 
by his brethren when they were convinced of their sin 
in the presence of Joseph : " We are verily guilty 
concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of 
his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear ; 
therefore is this distress come upon us." Genesis xlii, 21. 
Here is presented, 1. The anguish or deep distress of a 
young man torn from his father and home, and consigned 
to strangers. 2. His prayer; he besought hh brethren, he 
pleaded to be sent home. 3. They would not hear, but 
sold him for money. This was the beginning of Joseph's 
sufferings. 

He next served in Egypt, as a slave, his master Poti- 
phar. (Genesis xxxix, 4, 17, 19; xli, 12.) In conse- 
quence of his refusal to comply with the wishes of his 
master's wife, he was put in the dungeon of the prison 
and bound. (Genesis xxxix, 20.) There he served or 
waited on the chief butler and baker. (Genesis xl, 4.) 

But, although he was well treated in prison, because 

8 



90 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

the Lord was with him, he was not content as a slave. 
For having interpreted the dreams, he besought the butler 
for deliverance with the following entreaty and explana- 
tion : **But think on me when it shall be well with thee, 
and show kindness, I pray thee, nnto me, and make men- 
tion of me nnto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this 
house. For, indeed, I was stolen away out of the land 
of the Hebrews ; and here also have I done nothing, that 
they should put me into the dungeon." Genesis xl, 14, 
15. Yet the butler forgot Joseph for two fiill years, 
which was another aggravation of his sufferings. (Gen- 
esis xl, 23.) Joseph was thirteen years a slave. (Gen- 
esis xxxvii, 2; xli, 46.) 

There are several incidents in the case of Joseph as a 
slave which will point out clearly characteristics common 
to him and our slave system. We will present the fol- 
lowing : He was deprived of liberty ; this was done by 
force ; he pleaded against the wrong, but they would not 
hear ; he was made an article of property and sold ; his 
soul was in anguish on this account ; he was torn away 
from home ; suffered much as a slave ; was forgotten by 
those to whom he rendered important services. Thus he 
mourned after his lost liberty. 

As Joseph was deprived of his liberty, so our slaves 
are deprived of their liberty. "Liberty," according to 
Justinian — Inst. Lib. I, Tit. 3, Sec. 1 — "is the natural 
power of acting as we please, unless prevented by force 
or by the law." This is the case with our slaves. They 
are deprived of the inalienable rights of personal liberty, 
jDcrsonal security, and the pursuit of happiness* There 
is no difference in this respect between the case of Joseph 
and our slaves. Liberty is denied to the one as well as 
the other. And liberty is the greatest gift that any one 
can possess, except religion, and to be deprived of it is 
to be deprived of what is most prized. And then the 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 91 

enslaved person is placed under the will or dominion of 
another, who can control him as he pleases, and treat him 
as a mere thing of convenience. 

As Joseph was deprived of liberty hy force, so it is 
with om* slaves. It is true, there seems to be no ap- 
parent force used, when children are born, to place them 
in the number of slaves ; but let the mother of the slave 
child take her own child, and leave her master, in order 
to have her child become a freeman, then the power of 
force will be shown. She and her child will be seized 
by violent hands, and immediately be arrested and re- 
duced to the submission of the slave. If the slave at- 
tempt to run away he is hunted by the dogs, if need be, 
pursued as a criminal, seized with violence, and punished 
with stripes. There is the power of law, of courts, of 
the supreme judiciary, of the army and navy, brought 
out to compel him to submit to his bondage. He may 
be shot or killed in almost any way, if he resist his cap- 
tors. There are three millions of slaves in the country, 
and about twenty- one millions are in combined federal 
alliance to keep these slaves under the yoke. These slaves 
have not one dollar of property, or dollar's worth ; they 
have no arms, they have no learning, they have no press, 
they have no allies. On the other hand, their oppressors 
are seven times more numerous than they. They have all 
the property in the country ; they have the arms and army 
of the Union ; they have the learning, the press, and pow- 
erful allies. The force brought to bear against our slaves 
is greater, in proportion, than that which seized, stripped, 
and sold Joseph to strangers. 

And Joseph did not pray more unavailingly than our 

slaves. As to signing petitions to legislatures, even by 

putting down their marks, it could not be entertained 

I for a moment. They could not meet to deliberate, nor 

,' send in a petition. They would expect nothing but 



92 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

stripes were they to attempt such, a thing. How could 
three millions of slaves contrive to send in petitions to 
Congress ? It would he impossihle. How could the 
slaves in a state comhine in reference to the power that 
binds them hand and foot ? They can make no stump 
speeches, nor pulpit speeches. They can print nothing, 
or circulate it, were it printed. If others jDetition for 
them, they are rarely heard. Even gag-laws have been 
passed in Congress both against the petitions in their 
favor, or any speeches in their behalf. Gag-laws were 
passed in Congress in 1836, 1837, and 1840. By one 
hundred and sixty ayes against thirty-five nays, February 
11, 1837, the house resolved, "that slaves do not possess 
the right of petition secured to the peoj)le of the United 
States by the Constitution." The most miserable sinner 
may pray to God ; but slaves among us must not utter 
any prayer in reference to their case. The powers that 
be will not receive, respect, or hear their petitions, much 
less grant them. 

Our slaves are as truly reduced to proj^erty as Joseph 
was. He was sold and bought, and so are our slaves. 
We, too, sell for a price, and a high price at that. 
Joseph's price was only about twelve or fifteen dollars. 
Our slaves sell at from five hundfed to one thousand dol- 
lars, and over. Joseph passed through several hands. 
The matter of the sale, purchase, conveyance, and secur- 
ing of slaves has become a great and weighty business. 
There are the producers, who, in the very nature of the 
system, are the slave -growers. Then there are the traders, 
who buy them by traversing the country, and picking up 
one here and there till a gang is ready for the southern 
market. Then there are the great slave merchants, who 
have the barracoons to keep them safely. Almost every 
newspaper makes a gain by profitable advertisements of 
negroes for sale, negroes wanted ; the farm -horses, cows, 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 93 

hogs, furniture, and negroes, are displayed. The hand- 
bills and circulars, too, increase the business of the coun- 
try. The auctioneer, the sheriff, and other civil officers, 
have a share in the merchandise of the souls and bodies 
of men. The bidders do their work. And if the slave 
be a Methodist preacher or Baptist j)i"eacher, as he is 
worth much to keep the slaves at work, and keep them 
from stealing, the bidding becomes often very brisk — 
the gifts and graces of the man commanding the highest 
price — as these are valuable qualities on a plantation, so 
that such a slave becomes an overseer as well as a slave. 
The consumers, properly so called, must not be over- 
looked ; the sugar men and cotton men esj)ecially. These 
purchase hardy males — do not wish to grow slaves — 
wear them out in about seven years, and by extra profits 
can afford to buy a new gang. When this pays, as it 
mostly does, it saves the inconvenience and risks of grow- 
ing the stock. Thus our growers of slaves, our various 
grades of traders, merchants, and officers, and consumers 
do a business as far beyond that of Joseph's brethren, the 
Midianites, and Potiphar, as three millions of slaves ex- 
ceed one single Joseph. 

The anguish of our slaves may, in many respects, equal 
that of Joseph ; though, in some cases, it may fall greatly 
below it. To be torn from parents, and husbands, and 
wives, and relatives, must always affect any sensitive, in- 
telligent being. And we have instances enough in the 
history of the slaves' wrongs which inflict wounds on 
the slave as keen and cutting as Joseph experienced. 
This will apply, however, to those who, like Joseph, had 
superior advantages. 

But there is a class of slaves, so steeped in ignorance 
and stupidity by slavery, that some of them seem not to 
be much alive to their true state. And their masters 
cherish this, by making them as comfortable as possible. 



94 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

in their way, witli food, clothing, and attendance, when 
sick. Through ignorance and mere animal gratification 
these often become contented slaves, and are lio.ppy, as 
they say. This is the darkest and lowest grade of slavery. 
Here is brutality, induced by the system. The man is 
unmarried, and the animal rules. And yet the perpetra- 
tors of this debauch tell us, " Our slaves are better clothed, 
fed, and housed, than your free laborers and manufac- 
turers." They seem never to take into the account mental 
culture, liberty, independence, religion, marriage, eleva- 
tion of character. They substitute for these, contuber- 
nium, ignorance, degradation, servility, irreligion, food 
and clothing, and thus call these things the chief good 
of man. 

To tear away children from parents is common to the 
case of Joseph and to our slavery. In one state, we believe, 
there is a law restraining the separation of children or 
parents. But, in general, the slave laws pay no regard 
whatever to this ; for, though the benevolence of some 
masters operates here, the effect is very limited. In the 
partition of estates it is little regarded. In sheriff's sales 
it is not known. Those that pass through the trader's 
hands are liable to separation, with no reference to the 
wishes of parents or children. 

The changes of masters are very often attended with 
untold miseries to the slaves. Even when they fall into 
the hands of good masters^ the evil is not evaded. In 
such cases there is often the separation of parents and 
children, and all the grades of relationship. Some are 
purchased for the sugar and cotton-fields of the south, 
and from being house-servants in Virginia, now makej 
up a part of the southern gang on the cotton, rice, orj 
sugar plantations. Then young, well-looking females, | 
almost white, are purchased, and treated as God's intel- 
ligent creatures ought never to be treated. If there is 9\ 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 95 

curse from heaven, from the conscience, and the result 
of crime, here it must rest, and adhere like the shirt of 
Nessus. 

The longing of the slave for liberty, unless hrutality is 
induced, is keen and undying. He sighs, and groans, 
and prays for liberty to the very last. This is natural 
to man. Nothing is so much in accordance with the law- 
ful instincts of man as to enjoy the exercise of going, 
coming, and staying, as he pleases, or as his judgment 
directs. It is pleasant to call one's hands, feet, eyes, 
MINE, not YOURS ; to have some property, too, if it is only 
as much as poor Cadmus had, is worth something, as it 
is a man's all ; to wear a chain, only occasionally — to 
anticipate a sale — to be placed in the very lowest grade 
of humanity, must prey on human feelings, and produce 
anxiety. Justinian describes this well where he says, in 
the civil law, that, " in the condition of slaves, there is 
no diversity, but among free persons there is many, aa 
ingenui — freemen, or libertini — freed-men." (Inst. Lib. I, 
Tit. 3, Sec. 5.) A slave is the lowest state, and none 
can be lower or higher, as all are andrapoda^ that is,. 
men underfoot, who can sink no lower. And no human 
being can inflict this on another without doing a great 
moral wrong. The sorrows of the slave, and his long- 
ings for liberty, show that slavery is both inhuman and 
unjust. 

And yet all these evils, to which the slave is subject, 
seem to be overlooked and forgotten. His services and 
trials are not kept in view. Like Joseph and the butler, 
the slave is forgotten by his master, except to reap the 
ifruit of his labor. This, at least, is the genuine opera- 
tion of the system. When benevolence interferes, by 
its kind offices, it is like the good Samaritan doing the 
ivvork which the slaveholding priest and Levite knew noth- 
ling of. Slaveholders ride in their carriages, eat at their 



96 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

sumptuous tables, possess property, enjoy their homes, 
and all by the toils of the slaves. Surely here is as 
great a forgetfulness as the two years' forgetfulness of 
the butler. There is this difference, however, that the 
slaveholder's forgetfulness lasts always. 

7. The care and providence of God over Joseph will 
enable us to notice the care, protection, and deliverance 
which the Almighty exercises toward slaves, and all that 
are oppressed. 

The Lord was with Joseph and prospered him. His 
new master, Potiphar, discovered this. This brought 
Joseph into favor. He was made overseer in the house 
of his master, and all his concerns were intrusted in his 
hands. (Genesis xxxix, 2-6.) 

The singular piety of Joseph was remarkable in fidelity 
to every trust, and his resisting the overtures of his mis- 
tress. (Genesis xxxix, 7, 20.) 

When put in prison, and even in its dungeon, for a 
crime of which he was not guilty, the Lord was with him, 
showed him mercy, and gave himvfavor- in the sight of 
the keeper of the jDrison. He was even here intrusted 
with the care of every thing. (Genesis xxxix, 21-23.) 

After interpreting the dreams of the butler and baker, 
and then of Pharoah, he was not only set at liberty, but 
promoted to the highest distinction in Egypt, the par- 
ticulars of which w^e need not here detail. (Genesis 
xl, xli.) 

And after all the evils which Joseph suffered from his 
brethren, he generously forgave them, when they came 
to a proper sense of their crimes. (Genesis xlv, 3-8; 
1, 15-21.) 

Two lessons, connected with our subject, we learn from 
this part of the history. The first is, that the Lord will 
hear and protect the poor, the needy, the slave, and the 
oppressed. The second is, that he will punish their 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 97 

opiDressors, and deliver the oppressed iu his own good 
time. 

8. The reverse of circumstances in the case of Joseph's 
brethren will fm-nish a specimen of what has occm-red, in 
the history of mankind, to the oppressors of their fellow- 
men. 

An unexpected famine rendered it necessary for Jo- 
seph's brethren to go to Egypt to purchase corn to pre- 
vent starvation. There the recollection of their past evil 
conduct came up fresh in their minds. They were har- 
assed with the conditions of their case, in the detention 
of Simeon as a hostage for bringing down Benjamin. 

The reverse of circumstances brought them to a sense 
of their guilt. They confessed to each other their guilt ; 
they w^ere distressed on account of it, and they acknowl- 
edged now that their course was a murderous one. " We 
are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw 
the anguish of his soul, w^hen he besought us, and we 
would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us." 
Reuben said to them, *' Spake I not unto you, saying. Do 
not sin against the child ; and ye w^ould not hear ? there- 
fore, behold also his blood is required." Genesis xlii, . 
21, 22. Thus they expressed themselves when they were 
before Joseph the first time. At the second interview 
they say, " What shall we say unto my Lord ? what shall 
w^e speak ? or how shall we clear ourselves ? God hath 
found out the iniquity of thy servants." Genesis xliv, 16. 

They were haunted with fears even to the very last. 
After the death of their father, Jacob, they feared that 
their former evil deeds would be visited on them. They 
approached Joseph with trembling, and entreated him to 
forgive their trespass, their sin. 

The adverse reverse of circumstances of the supporters 

of the slave system, if variously examined, will be found 

to exist in it in all ages. In Greece, and in Rome, it was 

9 



08 THE BIBLE AND SLAVEIIY. 

found to produce tlie greatest disasters, and often broke 
out in insurrections and bloodshed. It reduced the West 
Indies to the greatest distress, financially and socially ; 
and, although the blame has been laid at the door of 
emancipation, it j)roperly belongs to slavery. The hor- 
rors of St. Domingo were nothing else than the con- 
vulsive throes of slavery. 

In our country the low morals, in connection with 
the system, are manifest to all men. The majority of 
the w^hites, in the slave states, are but poorly educated, 
and have even obtained the name of "white negroes." 
Landed property in slave states, is, perhaps, only one- 
half, or two-thirds the price it is in the free states. The 
money pressures, too, have a greater effect on them than 
on others. The overt efforts of the slave power, in 
forcing pro-slavery measures on the General Government, 
as in the Fugitive- Slave law, the Nebraska bill, and other 
acts of like sort, are now producing an opposition to 
the whole system that will never be settled while slavery 
exists. The civilized w^orld looks now with horror at 
our system, and we are forced to be dumb, having no 
argument or reason to meet their just reproaches. If 
prices of cotton and sugar are greatly reduced, by the 
cultivation of these staples, in other countries, the result 
will be to humble and depress the slave power. In short, 
the moral sense of the world has now solemnly uttered 
its condemnation of the entire system. What reverses 
may be in the future, none can tell, but, according to 
the fixed laws of God's government, these reverses will 
come. 

Sober reflection has brought the most devoted friends 
of slavery to the conviction of its wrongs, and distress 
of mind in consequence. In 1832, just after the insur- 
rection in Virginia, this conviction became very general 
throughout the south. After some respite, this eonvic- 






PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 99 

tion died away, and elaborate essays have been published 
to defend the system. The issues of the press, from the 
north, since that time, have shown up, pretty clearly, the 
great moral evils of the system. And, however numerous 
they are who now plead for the system, the conscience of 
the south, to some extent, is greatly disturbed, if not 
convinced. 

9. AVe may here inquire how far our confession and 
repentance, for the sin of our slavery, may correspond 
with the confession and repentance of Joseph's brethren. 

By the wonderful change of circumstances, and the 
providence of God, there is much conviction in the minds 
of men in regard to the moral, social, and political 
wrongs of slavery. The discussions in the north, though 
mixed up with some extravagant sentiments, have greatly 
convinced the public of the evils of the system. The 
conscience of the south, after all the denunciations of 
abolitionists, has been greatly awakened. It is true, that 
many now in the south contend for the system on Scrip- 
tural grounds ; but this we must consider similar with 
pleading and arguing for heterodoxy, or false doctrines, 
and bad morals from the Scriptures. The exercise of nat- 
ural conscience, and sounder teachings, wall, in time, do 
away these errors from the minds of men. But, if men are 
deaf to the convictions of justice, the adverse providences 
of God, by judgments, will plead the cause of right, as 
in the case of Joseph's brethren. We need not stay to 
portray this — the history of God's righteous government 
proves it to every reflecting mind. 

10. If we contrast the service of Josej^h with that 
under the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, noth- 
ing can be more different. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
were eminently good men, and were governed by the 
principles of justice. Joseph's brethren were bad men, 
at the time they sold their brother. 



100 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

No force was used in procuring tlie servants of Abra- 
ham. They became bis servants, or subjects, from re- 
ligious considerations, and for the sake of protection and 
support. Those bought with money, by Abraham, were 
bought for their benefit. The servants of Abraham were 
never sold, or transferred to others, and it gradually be- 
came extinct, by voluntary agreement, as we see in the 
servants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. No cruel treat- 
ment can be found toward the servants of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob. In short, the two systems are as 
opposite as freedom and slavery — as right and wrong. 

11. On survey of the subject, we find that there is a 
perfect identity between the slavery of Joseph and our 
slave system ; at least, it has all the parts that can be 
common to the case of an individual, compared with a 
general system. 

The brethren of Joseph, when they seized him, were 
wicked men, under the control of bad tempers, such as 
hatred and envy. Enslavers, in general, are wicked men ; 
and if envy, hatred, and malice, be not uppermost, the 
love of gain, of power, gratification, or the like, govern 
them. They are not under the influence of love, which 
worketh no ill to his neighbor, nor do they observe the 
golden rule, " Do as you would wish to be done by." 

The commutation of slavery for murder, has nothing 
to recommend it ; because the murderous temper still 
remains, and is now, and always has been, an element in 
every slave system. Such unworthy motives as gain, 
pleasure, convenience, govern in this. So, while our sys- 
tem has disavowed murder, it includes it, nevertheless, 
and alleges for it the argument of gain, pleasure, or 
custom. 

In their case Joseph's brethren used force. We use it 
in originating, continuing, and practicing our slavery, 
with no less a force than the army and navy, the treasure 



PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 101 

and police of tlie whole Union, in compelling our slaves 
to lie quiescent under our feet, as the word andrapodon, or 
slave, properly means. And we are andrapodistae, those 
who stand upon the slave, in this downtrodden condition. 

Our theft, or stealing of men, is as palpable as that of 
Joseph, and the charge is as applicable to us as to his 
brethren. The sin of it, too, is nothing less; and no 
evasion can clear us of the guilt and shame which are 
incurred by our acts. 

Our slave-dealers are certainly more competent, and 
greater adepts in their profession, than those who bought 
and sold Josejjh. We employ dogs to catch them, hunt- 
ers to hunt them, and marshals to seize them. And our 
stripes and stars float proudly over a poor Burns, and we 
carry him back in triumph to receive his quota of stripes, 
minister as he was. 

In Joseph's case there seems to be no mourner but one ; 
that is, the father. The bereavements of our system 
reaches father and mother, brothers and sisters, and all 
relatives. Look at the picture found in the case of Mr. 
Hill's slaves. 

As to the distress of the slaves themselves, in their bond- 
age, while some, through the mere ignorance and degrada- 
tion inseparable from the system, seem content, the greater 
number carry with them the miseries of the system, both 
bodily and mental, down to the grave, in which at last 
they find a resting-place. 

The remorse and confession of slaveholders, among us, 
are sufficiently exhibited to declare our guilt. Of late, 
especially since 1832, some have boldly disavowed all 
sense of guilt. But this disavowal is no proof that it 
does not exist. Almost all culprits, like Joseph's breth- 
ren, deny, to the last extremity, their sin, even were it 
murder. Joseph's brethren did so. Our slaveholders do 
60. It is a part of their sin, after doing their evil deed, 



102 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

to eal bread, like Joseph's "bretliren, and tlieii cry out, 
"Abolitionist/" — ''Fanatic JTortk /" while inward guilt 
preys on their conscience. But we have hosts of slave- 
holders, who now, like honest men, denounce it all over, 
as Jefferson did. 

While we earnestly hope, we would humbly pray that 
all our slaveholders might be led, by God's grace and 
providence, to forsake their sins, and turn their attention 
to the slave system, so as to do it away as soon as pos- 
sible, in consistency with the principles of the New Test- 
ament, under the influence of the great law of love, 
which works no ill to his neighbor, and does to all as he 
would desire that they should do to him. Whenever love 
of God and man shall govern, slavery will die out. 



EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 103 



CHAPTER IV. 

EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 

The inquiry here is, whether there is such a just anal- 
ogy between the bondage of the Hebrews, in Egypt, 
and our slavery, as to justify us to argue from the one to 
the other. There were certainly some points in which 
the service of the Hebrews, in Egypt, differed from our 
slavery ; but there are many points on which they agree. 
It is not always safe to argue from mere analogy, be- 
tween two cases, so as to infer from the one the same 
conclusions which we mav infer from the other. But in 
forming the comparison here, we have great moral prin- 
ciples so clearly pointed out, in both cases, that we are 
saved from mere conjecture. Besides, the law of Moses, 
in drawing instructions from the bondage of Egypt, 
expressly declares to the Hebrews, that this bondage con- 
veys the lessons, that they should not enslave one another, 
nor enslave strangers. 

1. The Hebrews in Egypt were held by the govern- 
ment, and were employed in the service of the govern- 
ment, without particular reference to the will of indi- 
viduals. They were held to service, enslaved, or op- 
pressed, as a 'people, or nation, rather than as individuals, 
to the service of others. They were not claimed, or 
owned, or required to serve individuals, or distributed on 
farms, as the property of individuals. 

Our slavery, like that of Egypt, is established by the 
authority of law and Government ; and it is as much the 
creature of law and Government as Egyptian slavery. 
Both were created by the sovereign civil power. Our 



104 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

Goverument does not, however, either own slaves, or re- 
quire the service of our slaves. It disavows these, except 
in case of debt to the Government, in which case the 
slaves are sold to pay the debt. Our Government author- 
izes individuals to own slaves, and maintains the full ex- 
ercise of this to the utmost power of the civil arm. And 
this seems to give bad eminence to our system, as the 
civil power gives to the master the complete dominion 
over the services of the slave ; and also such power over 
his life and limb as no just civil power ever granted to 
one human being over another. Our slavery originated 
in private individuals taking possession of men as slaves. 
Subsequently this theft, robbery, violence, or assault and 
battery were sanctioned by law ; hence, our slavery differs 
from the Egyptian, and is worse on that account. The 
Egyptians, however, appear to have had domestic serv- 
ants or slaves in their families. (Exodus ix, 14, 20, 21.) 
2. On many accounts the servitude of Egypt was more 
mild than our slavery. Although it was hard, oj^pressive, 
grievous, a furnace, yet in several of the features it was 
much more lenient than our slavery. The following are 
the principal points of lenience in the bondage of Egypt. 
(See Barnes on Slavery, pp. 83-86. Weld's Bible Argu- 
ment, pp. 43, 44.) 

The Israelites were not dispersed among the families 
of Egypt, but formed a separate community of their 
own in the land of Goshen, of which they had exclusive 
possession. (Genesis xlvi,. 35; xlvii, 6, 11, 27; Ex- 
odus ix, 26 ; X, 23 ; xi, 7.) 

The Israelites lived in permanent dwellings. These 
were houses and not tents ; because the doors, side posts, 
and lintels are mentioned. (Exodus xii, 6, 22.) And 
each family seems to have occupied a house with several 
apartments. (Exodus ii, 2, 3; Acts vii, 20.) 

They were the oivners of vast herds of cattle ; *^a mixed 



EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 105 

miiltitucle of flocks and herds," and *'mucli cattle." Ex- 
odus xii, 32, 37, 38. They were, therefore, the possessors 
of much property, as the history shows. 

They had their own form of government, as their 
tribes, their elders, their family divisions, though a sort 
of province of Egypt and tributary to it. (Exodus ii, 
1 ; iii, 16, 18 ; vi, 14, 25 ; xii, 19, 21.) 

They seemed to have had, to a considerable degree, the 
disposal of their own time. (Exodus ii, 9 ; iii, 16, 18 ; 
xii, 6; Exodus xxiii, 4.) 

They possessed the use of arms. (Exodus xxxii, 27.) 

None but adult males seem to have rendered service. 
There is no account of the bond service of females. The 
mother of Moses had him three months ; and afterward 
she contracted to nurse him for wages. (Exodus xii, 29.) 
The great body of the people seem not to be in the service 
of the Egyptians at any one time. 

None of these privileges belong to our slaves. On 
this account the bondage of Egypt had several meliora- 
ting traits which do not belong to our slavery. Our 
slaves do not dwell in separate communities, in their own 
houses, do not possess much property, assemble when they 
choose, or make contracts, etc. 

3. As to the proper character of the service rendered 
by the Hebrews, by the exaction of the Egyptians, it is 
thus described by the inspired penman: "They did set 
over them taskmasters, to afflict them with their burdens. 
And they built for Pharoah treasure cities — Pithon and 
Raamses. And the Egyptians made them serve with 
rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bond- 
age, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service 
in the field : all their service wherein they made them 
serve was with rigor." Exodus i, 11, 13, 14. "They 
sighed by reason of their bondage, and they cried ; and 
their cry came up imto God, by reason of the bondage." 



106 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

Exodus ii, 23. "I have surely seen the affliction of my 
people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by 
reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 
I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians 
oppress them." Exodus iii, 7, 9. "But they hearkened 
not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bond- 
age." Exodus vi, 9. 

The Israelites were employed in severe labor, of the 
lowest and most laborious kind. They worked in mortar 
and brick, in digging the clay, kneading and preparing 
it, and then forming it into bricks, and drying and burn- 
ing them. They also served in the field by carrying 
these materials to the places where they were to be put 
into buildings for the public. 

Josephus says: "The Egyptians contrived a variety 
of w^ays to afflict the Israelites ; for they enjoined them 
to cut a great number of channels for the river, and to 
build walls for the cities and ramparts, that they might 
restrain the river, and hinder its waters from stagnating 
upon its own banks. They set them also to build pyra- 
mids, and wore them out, and forced them to learn all 
sorts of mechanic arts, and to accustom themselves to 
hard labor." Antiq., B. IL, cap. ix. Sec. 1. Philo tells 
us they were employed to carry burdens beyond their 
strength. They were forced to be workers and servers. 

The service was with rigor, with cruelty, and oppres- 
sion. They served with hard hondage, with gi-ievous servi- 
tude. Their life was one of laborious service ; oppressive 
enough in itself, but made more severe by the treatment 
they received. 

This service was compulsory by the supreme law of the 
land, which they could neither gainsay nor resist. "They 
MADE THEM SERVE with rigor." It was compulsory on the 
part of the Egyptians, and involuntary on the part of 
the Hebrews. 



EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 107 

Tliere were taskmasters, O'DiO 'ntl" — sawray missiniy 
princes of burdens, works, or tribute. The Septuagint 
calls them overseers of the works. Tax-gatherers is the 
most exact meaning, perhaps. These appointed them 
their work, and exacted from them the performance of it. 

This service was attended with both bodily and mental 
affliction. The strongest words are used to express this. 
It is called oppression, because it crushed the man. It is 
called affliction, because of the constant uneasiness ex- 
perienced. Their very lives were made bitter, so that the 
comforts of life were greatly lessened or allayed. The 
very spirit was in anguish, so that they sighed by reason 
of their miseries. 

Add to all this, that their burdens were increased in 
refusing to give them straw to make the brick, in order 
thoroughly to subdue them and preserve them in subjec- 
tion. (Exodus V, 5-19.) 

The foregoing presents a tolerably faithful picture of 
slavery in several of its leading characteristics. Our 
slaves are employed in the most laborious drudgery, of the 
lowest sort, with no opportunities of mental culture ; so 
that it may be said, in general terms, to be hard, rigorous, 
constant, and degrading. The Egyptian taskmasters and 
officers correspond to our overseers and drivers with a 
good degree of coincidence. The overseer is the taskmas- 
ter, and the officer is the black driver, who urges on the 
gang in their toil. The anguish, bitterness, and affliction 
of the one are well represented by those of the other. We 
have also a very fair specimen of the excessive exaction 
of Egypt, in the demands made on multitudes of slaves 
in the cotton-fields and sugar plantations, in order to 
exact the most possible service at the least expenditure. 
The points of agreement are very marked between our 
slavery and their bondage — in the nature and degree of 
labor exacted, in the compulsion used, in the oversight 



108 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

employed, in tlie mental and bodily sufferings endured, 
and the immeasurable and unjust exactions demanded. 

4. Egyptian bondage is said to have commenced at a 
time when there was a king *'who knew not Joseph.'* 
Exodus i, 8. The word to know often signifies to ac- 
knowledge, to approve, as all allow. We may, therefore, 
understand by the new king's not knowing Joseph, his 
disapproving of that system of government which Joseph 
had established, as well as his haughtily refusing to ac- 
knowledge the obligations under which the whole country 
was laid to Joseph. The entire period that the descend- 
ants of Abraham were in Canaan and in Egypt, was four 
hundred and thirty years, being about two hundred and fif- 
teen in the one and two hundred and fifteen in the other. 
(Exodus xii, 40.) The enslavement of the Hebrews, 
when the new king arose, occurred about B. C. 1604, or 
one hundred and three years after the descent of Jacob to 
Egypt. They were one hundred and thirteen years in 
bondage, or from B. C. 1604 to 1491. The Hebrews were 
treated on the basis of equal rights over one hundred years 
in Egypt ; then the policy changed, and the reign of op- 
pression continued for one hundred and thirteen years. 

It was a dark day in Christendom when the Christian 
nations of Europe entered on the extinguished system of 
slavery. The Christian nations of Spain and Portugal 
took the lead. England soon followed. These Govern- 
ments did not knoiv ; the}^ forgot, or did not acknowledge 
the antislavery practice of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob. They either forgot, or they did not acknowl- 
edge or approve the unbending antislavery laws given 
by God to Moses, so that no slave could touch Hebrew 
soil, or breathe its air. They did not study the anti- 
slavery principles of the New Testament. They over- 
looked the victories of Christianity in destroying slavery 
wherever it existed. 



EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 109 

Worse yet, the Biblical interpreters, from Cornelius a 
Lapide, down to our times, have blindly taught, or con- 
ceded, that slavery existed in the families of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob ; that the Mosaic code allowed it, and so 
did Christ and his apostles. From the Spanish comment- 
ators, as far as we can learn, the teaching has passed 
to all the Protestant commentators, Wesley, Clarke, and 
Coke not excepted, strong antislavery men as they were. 
They have not shown that the true slavery was found in 
the case of Joseph, among the Egyptians, and the heathen 
nations, and received its support from unjust human laws, 
and not from the word of Grod. 

Our slave system finds its type in this new king of 
Egypt, who ignored the just principles of Joseph's gov- 
ernment. The Roman code, in establishing slavery, re- 
jected the law of nature, and counteracted its own defini- 
tion of justice, and right, and liberty. The American 
constitutions and laws, establishing the system, reject the 
sound principles of the Declaration of Independence, of 
the constitutions of the land, of holy Scripture, and nat- 
ural law. And by such barbarous principles as that the 
child follows the condition of the mother, our system of 
slavery has grown up, maintained by the army, navy, 
treasure, judiciary, and laws of the states and United 
States. And now, most recent pleaders for the system 
treat with sneer and contempt the antislavery principles 
which the fathers of American liberty held, professed, and 
practiced to the end of their lives. 

5. There are many strong points of resemblance be- 
tween the servitude of the Hebrews in Egypt and our 
slavery. 

There are some respects in which, as we have seen, 
there was a great dissimilarity between the two systems. 
The Israelites were not dispersed among the families of 
Egypt, but formed a community by themselves. They 



110 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

owned much property, tliey had a limited government of 
their own, and the females -were not held to service, but 
the adult males only. They were not liable to be sold for 
debt, they were not held strictly as chattels, nor were they 
under the constraint, or in the service, of individual own- 
ers, but of the government only. They were held to in- 
voluntary service by compulsion of law. They were 
oppressed men, but not reduced to all the conditions of 
property, as our slaves are. 

Yet there are, as stated, strong points of resemblance 
between their servitude and our slavery, that give the same 
moral character to the one and the other. 

They were a different race, as the African with us. We 
can not call our slaves a foreign race, as distinguished 
from our whites ; because both, as to America, are for- 
eign ; the Indians alone being the original people of the 
country. The difference of race, say color, is the leading 
badge by which to mark out, in this country, the slave. 
And if difference of race be a reason for enslavement, 
then any one race may enslave another race which is dif- 
ferent from it. 

The service, in both institutions, is one of force or mere 
power. It was the work of oppression and wrong. 
There was no right but power alone. They were made 
to serve. This is the case with our slavery — it is com- 
pulsory and involuntary. 

The bondage of Egypt had all the essential features of 
our slavery, being a state of compulsory, involuntary,, 
unremunerated toil. It was hard bondage. They had 
taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. They 
had also their officers or drivers, to see that the work was 
done. The tale of bricks is demanded, while no straw is 
given. There is no voluntary labor. "And they made 
their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar, and in 
bricks, and in all manner of service in the field ; all their 



EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. Ill 

service wherein they made them serve was with rigor.'* 
Exodus i, 14. *'I am the Lord thy God which brought 
thee out of the laud of Egypt, out of the house of bond- 
age." Exodus XX, 2. Thus, many of the leading qual- 
ities of slavery are identical with Egyptian bondage. 

6. The Egyptians did not wish to lose the services of 
the Hebrews. They did not wish them '*to get them up 
out of the land." Exodus i, 10. It is not to be sup- 
posed that the Egyptians were ignorant of the Israelites' 
intention to return and settle in Canaan. Sensible, there- 
fore, of the advantages arising from such a body of peo- 
ple, yet fearful of their numbers and power, they determ- 
ined to prevent their increase, and so weaken their power. 
Hence the recourse to very severe labor, and the sacrifice 
of life. 

In the estimation of our slaveholders, who are unac- 
customed to labor, and who make large demands for per- 
sonal services from their slaves, the services of our three 
millions and a half of slaves can not be disf)ensed with. 
The climate, and culture of rice, cotton, and sugar, they 
say, does not suit the constitutions of white men, and 
therefore slaves are necessary. And yet white people 
reside wherever the slaves labor. Though they can not 
go into the cornfield, and toil in the production of 
sugar, cotton, and rice, they can ride in carriages, and 
live in luxury, notwithstanding the climate. Slavehold- 
ers want the slaves to loork for them, to wait on them, 
and to administer to their jDleasures, conveniences, and 
luxuries. Here is the secret of the whole system. There 
is the profit, pleasure, and ease of the system ; therefore, 
they will not let the people go. Even after the ten 
plagues had destroyed Egypt, and the Israelites had left, 
Pharaoh and the Egyptians repented of their conrse, and 
resolved to overtake them and bring them back. " And 
it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled ; and the 



112 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

lieart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against 
the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that 
we have let Israel go from serving us ?" Exodus xiv, 5. 
We hear loud complaints of the worthlessness, expense, 
and vexations of slavery ; yet when the proposal of 
emancipation is presented, it is scouted with abhorrence. 
And our Fugitive- Slave law, with its officers, and the army 
of the Union, and the President of the United States, 
commander-in-chief, furnishes a pretty good imitation 
of Pharaoh and his army pursuing the Israelites. 

7. The increasing number and power of the oppressed 
always gave uneasiness to their oppressors, and the most 
rigorous means have been resorted to, to keep numbers 
within due bounds, and subdue the rising and dangerous 
power. 

The Israelites were fruitful as fruit-trees, and increased 
with the fecundity of fishes, as the Hebrew words imply. 
Hence they are said to multiply, and wax exceedingly 
mighty, so that the land was filled with them. They 
were more numerous and strong than the Egyptians. 
They grew and were multiplied under afflictions. They 
multiplied and waxed very mighty. (Exodus i, 7, 9, 12, 
20.) Their number and power were a source of alarm to 
the Egyptians. Two expedients were resorted to, to coun- 
teract the number and the power of the slaves. The one 
was to destroy the male children ; or a certain proportion 
of them. (Exodus i, 16-21.) The other was to increase 
their labor, and refuse them the necessary means of per- 
forming their tasks, by withholding straw. (Exodus v, 
7-14.) They had more ivork to perform, and the material 
was diminished. 

The increase of the number and power of slaves, is no ' 
small cause of alarm and precaution in our country. 
There is no resort, however, to direct murder, because the 
slaves are too valuable for this. The slave-growing states jj 



EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 113 

are, loj natural increase, constantly swelling the number. 
x\nd as they cost high prices in the south, and then the 
profit is considerable, to kill them would be bad policy ; 
indeed, ruinous. Hence, more territory is constantly 
1 anted, sought, and obtained, so as to make room for 
their numbers ; and severe protective laws are enacted, 
to guard against their growing and formidable power. 

The entire number of slaves in the United States, in 
1850, was 3,204,313; of free colored people, 434,495; 
total colored people, of slaves and free persons, 3,638,808 ; 
or over three and a half millions of colored persons ; who 
about this time — April, 1855 — are about four millions, or 
nearly one-sixth of the population of the United States. 

The proportion of free colored and slave population, to 
the free white population, was, 

As 1 slave or colored to 4.1 whites in 1790. 





u 


(( 


4.2 


tt 


1800. 




(( 


(( 


4.2 


(( 


1810. 




u 


a 


4.4 


u 


1820. 




(( 


u 


4.5 


li 


1830. 




(( 


({ 


4.9 


u 


1840. 




It 


<( 


5.3 


(( 


1850. 



Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, have each 
more colored population than white. The states of Ala- 
bama, Florida, and Georgia, have nearly as many colored 
as white persons ; while the states of Maryland, North 
Carolina, Texas, and Virginia, have about one-third col- 
ored. Maryland has about one-seventh of her population 
free colored persons, and about one-eighth slaves, which 
shows that free colored persons there find a home and 
protection. 

There are now — 1855 — about four millions of colored 
people in the United States, and about twenty-six mill- 
ions of whites, making nearly one-sixth of the whole 

colored. Then there are about ten millions of colored 

10 



114 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

people, as some state, on the American continent and 
islands, making the colored force about fourteen millions. 
The population of Mexico and South America, may be 
set down now at about nineteen millions ; so that the 
colored population make up a numerous body of men, 
who may form, yet, pretty formidable enemies ; especially 
as their race is treated os enemies, in enslaving so many 
of them. Add to this, that the civilized world, Britain 
and France especially, are arrayed against the whole sys- 
tem of slavery. Besides, the conscience, wherever it is a 
good one, is against the system, and for freedom. And 
what is greater than all, God is against it, and it must 
come to an end. The fears of Pharaoh, and of the 
Egyptians, are the type of the fears of our slaveholders, 
in reference to the number and power of the colored peo- 
ple ; and the strong political movements of the south, 
within the last few years, aided by northern sympa- 
thizers, in j)assing the Fugitive- Slave law, and the Ne- 
braska bill, indicate a purpose to continue and extend 
the system. The plan is not to kill, or even overwork 
the slaves ; but perhaps it is even worse in its results, as 
it is to establish firmly, and extend greatly, the system, 
and make the whole Union the allies in this huge work 
of oppression. 

8. The Israelites were oppressed, lest they should join 
the enemies of the Egyptians. "Come on, let us deal 
wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass 
that, when there falleth out any war, they join also our 
enemies, and fight against us, and so get them out of the 
land." 

The fear of insurrection is one that has haunted slave- 
holders from the days of Pharaoh down to this day. 
Pharaoh undertook to meet the difficulty by killing off 
in due time the dangerous excess of the Hebrews, by 
murder, and then subduing the rest by excessive labor, 



EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 115 

and a most vigilant police of taskmasters, and under 
officers. This was dealing wisely with them. 

Among the Greeks various methods were employed, 
when necessary to diminish the power and number of the 
slaves. We can not enlarge here, but refer to the well- 
known authorities. 

The Romans, too, found the same difficulty pressing 
upon them. Here, too, we must, for want of space, refer 
to the authentic histories on this subject. 

An insurrection of the slaves strikes terror to all 
hearts, especially the guilty, and those who are exposed 
to the danger. The little insurrection in Southampton, 
Virginia, above twenty years ago, moved the whole Union ; 
and the project of emancipation was discussed, remem- 
bered for a while, and then forgotten. Presently the old 
measures of subjecting the slaves were considered and 
revised, and new measures • of vigilance and restraint 
were resorted to. The Sunday schools, and other schools, 
that had, through the tolerance of tlie times, been estab- 
lished, were now shut uj), and the laws favoring eman- 
cipation have been done away, so as to make it almost 
impossible. The southern slaveholders, in their genera- 
tion, have acted wisely, and have fortified themselves 
pretty firmly against the colored people, whom they con- 
sider their enemies ; as the colored people view slavehold- 
ers, in general, as their enemies. Hatred, envy, love of 
gain, began slavery ; and these inhere to it as parts of 
its very life blood. There is no love in the system. The 
slaves and masters never can be brothers, according to 
the slave code. They are natural, traditional, and prac- 
tical enemies, and ever will be so, on the principles of the 
system. We will barely mention a few of the methods 
employed to preserve the dominion over the slaves, as 
effectual, for the time being, as the wise plans of Pha- 
raoh. 



116 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

It is ratter an ungracious work to single out tlie sub- 
stitutes whicli our system of slavery has selected to do 
the work which the Egyptians did, by the murder of the 
male children, the increase of burdens, and the refusal 
of the material necessary for the work required. 

The brand of color is a pretty formidable one, so that 
wherever there is the African tinge, however slight, the 
strong presum2Jtion is, there is the slave. And even when 
the African is absorbed by the Saxon, genealogy comes 
in, and the descent^ by the mother, answers the same end 
of pronouncing the man a slave. 

Then, the child follows the condition of the mother. This 
becomes the source of the new generations of slaves, 
after the thefts from Africa had furnished the original 
stock of mothers. 

Next, these generations of slaves must be raised without 
education, so that they should forever remain ignorant of 
the proper modes of redress, and of asserting their rights. 
Hence, they can never use the press in any form in their 
behalf. 

They are disfranchised of all political or civil powers 
as citizens. They can neither vote nor hold any office. 
They can not even petition, in order to have any wrong 
redressed. 

They can not assemble together, or deliberate, or confer 
with one another, for any purpose whatever. They can 
have no primary meeting, in which to complain of their 
wrongs, nor utter any opinions about them, nor assert 
any principles to support their cause. They can not 
stand up as orators, nor plead before any power on earth 
that can relieve them. They can have neither hearing 
nor redress for any real or supposed wrongs ; as any acts 
by them, on these points, are pronounced and treated as 
treasonable, insurrectionary, or rebellious. 

Even their religious worship is at the will of their mas- 



EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 117 

ters, and under tlie control of severe and unjust laws. 
All their churches may be shut up, if the state sees fit. 
Masters may prevent all their slaves from ever attending 
any place of public worship. 

The southern police, or patrols, are organized, and on 
constant duty, as an armed force to preserve the peace 
of the town or vicinity. This may be necessary, because 
there is slavery ; but, because such a thing is necessary, 
the cause which produces it ought to be discontinued. 

And then the slaves can have no arms to protect them- 
selves, or assert their own rights. This, too, of course, 
is as necessary for the maintenance of the system, as the 
murder of infants, the increase of burdens, and the re- 
fusal of straw, was to the Hebrews in Egypt. But the 
system is radically wrong that needs the support of such 
means. 

And even when a poor fugitive, not from justice nor 
service, but from slavery, sets out to obtain freedom, 
the whole United States, from the President to the con- 
stable, with the army, navy, and police at their backs, 
are in motion to catch the poor runaway, as if he were 
the common enemy of mankind, or the safety of the 
United States, and of the world, depended on his capture, 
his enchainment, and the stripes he receives on his un- 
willing return. 

It would make a long list of means and ways, indeed, 
to trace out, in detail, all the various processes of the 
United States Government and of the slave states, of the 
masters and their ends, in order to accomplish what the 
original Egyptian slave power attempted by three simple 
and direct instrumentalities — murder, more hard work, 
and the denial of the proper material for this work. The 
wisdom of Pharaoh, and of his wise counselors, in our day, 
would be mere bungling, compared with our well-adjusted 
scheme of enslavement. Our southern slaveholders have 



118 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

studied the subject, and have done a master-work of leg- 
islation and diplomacy. There is no part of the old 
British code so much improved, as the part relating to 
slavery, in making it the completest despotism the world 
ever saw. As it excels the Egyptian and British codes, 
so does it the Koman code, in the complication of its 
wrongs. 

9. The oppressed Israelites prayed to God for relief, 
in consequence of their distress. "And the children of 
Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried ; 
and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bond- 
age." Exodus ii, 23. "And the Egyptians vexed us, 
and our fathers ; and when we cried unto the Lord, he 
heard our voice." Numbers xx, 15. 

Petitions to men are frequently unavailing, because 
men often want power to hear the request. The hum- 
blest of God's creatures are authorized and encouraged 
to ask God for redress. "Ask, and ye shall receive ; seek, 
and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto 
you." The poor and the needy, the stranger and the 
fatherless, are especially privileged to ask God for deliv- 
erance. 

Our slaves have prayed, sighed, and groaned, in vain, 
as it respects human aid. By stern law, they are not 
permitted to assemble in order to petition ; they are not 
allowed to draw up one, or set their mark to it. They 
can not present it to congress, legislature, judge, jury, or 
any power on earth to wdiich they have access. Their 
private prayers, and sighs, and tears, can speak only in 
silence, with closed lips, to the Supreme Ruler of the 
world. They have now appealed their unprotected, un- 
heeded, unredressed cause to the tribunal above. The 
four millions of colored people in the Union have done 
this. The more than three hundred thousand of Chris- 
tian slaves in bonds, have prayed, night and day, for 



EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 119 

liberty. They are praying for it now. They will con- 
tinue to pray for it till death. Millions of free white 
Christians are praying for them. Will the cry of all this 
host of oppressed ones and those who saw them, reach 
the ears of the Lord of armies ? Will God avenge his 
elect who cry to him day and night ? Have these poor 
ones no Redeemer ? Does Jesns Christ intercede only 
for white people ? Are the tears of all these little ones 
entirely forgotten by God, that made them, by Jesus 
Christ, who died for them, and by the Holy Ghost, who 
sanctified them ? Are slaveholders the only persons who 
will find favor with God ? 

10. The Almighty had respect to their prayers, and 
answered them, by a great deliverance from their bond- 
age. "And their cry came up unto God, by reason of 
the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God 
remembered the covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and 
with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, 
and God had respect unto them." Exodus ii, 23—25. 
" And I have also heard the groanings of the children 
of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage ; and I 
have remembered my covenant. Wherefore, say unto 
the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring 
you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I 
will rid you of their bondage, and I will redeem you with 
a stretched-out arm, and with great judgments." Exodus 
vi, 5, 6. 

These passages of Scripture apply particularly to the 
case of the Hebrews ; but the same great principles here 
laid down, are every-where declared in ScriiDture as the 
standard according to which the Almighty will deal in 
all like cases. Observe here, 

(1.) Bondage, oppression, and the like, are abhorrent 
to God. He abhorred it in the case of the Egyptians, 
and he does in reference to all. It is as hateful in his 



120 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

sight now as it was then ; and as he changes not, he must 
always hate it. American slavery can claim no exemp- 
tion from this, any more than Egyptian, Roman, or 
Grecian slavery. The righteous God hateth the wrong, 
and can never approve of it. 

(2.) The oppressed always had, have now, and ever 
will have, the ear of the Almighty, who hates oppression. 
No edicts of man can shut out their petitions from before 
the mercy-seat, and God's justice. No privileged class 
can exclude them from the compassion of the most mer- 
ciful God. 

(3.) Indeed, God has made a covenant with man in 
this matter. He says, in reference to this bondage, **I 
have remembered my covenant." This is the covenant 
of grace and mercy, made with Abraham, but to be ex- 
tended to the whole human family ; for in Abraham all 
the families of the earth were to be blessed. This cove- 
nant recognizes the brotherhood of man, and was com- 
pletely established under the Gospel dispensation. There 
was no slavery under it in the days of Abraham ; as all 
his servants, whether bought with money, or born in hi« 
house, were circumcised, and this broke up the slave sys- 
tem, which even then was in process of formation. There 
was no slavery connected with this covenant under the 
Mosaic code, because this code made every enslaving act 
a capital crime, punishable by death. No slavery existed 
according to this covenant under Christ and his apostles. 
Christ's mission was to proclaim the Gospel ; and the 
sequence of that was, liberty to the captives. This broth- 
erhood existed under the apostles. 

In the jDrimitive Church, slavery died out under its 
influence. Our Christian slavery never was in accordance 
with God's covenant, wdiether the African slave-trade — 
the parent, or the American commerce — the offspring ; 
for both are of the same birth and kin ; and if the one 



EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 121 

be wrong, they must both be wrong. The one is piracy, 
and the other can not belong to godliness. 

(4.) God has no attribute in favor of slavery. In 
reference to it, he says : *' I am the Lord, and I will bring 
you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." 
Here, we presume, Jefferson found the sentiment, that 
" no attribute of God was in favor of slavery." The 
God of love can not love slavery. The God of all grace 
can not favor the wrong. Mercy itself must arm itself 
against its cruelty. Justice weighs it in the balance and 
finds it wanting. God's omnipotence, in the exercise of 
judgments, are at war with the whole system. And as 
Omnipotence has destroyed the slavery of Egypt, Greece, 
and Home, it will destroy our slavery, unless we repent, 
and reform, and voluntarily, like the primitive Christians, 
and all truly good and enlightened Christians, have done 
with it. 

11. The commission of God to Moses to deliver the 
Hebrews from being involuntary laborers, or slaves to 
the Egyptians, runs in this wise : " Now, therefore, be- 
hold the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me ; 
and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyp- 
tians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will 
send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my 
people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." Exodus 
iii, 9, 10. 

Under the leadership of Moses, all this was accom- 
plished, as the history shows. The oppression was hateful 
to God, and it therefore could not be endured. The 
prayer, too, of the oppressed had reached the ear of the 
Almighty. Hence, deliverance was determined on, to 
meet the necessity of the case. Moses was the commis- 
sioned agent, through whose administration this was 
accomplished, M'ith a strong arm, and great judgments. 

The oppression of the slave is still hateful to God, and 

11 



122 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

deliverance is in store for liim under some leader, or 
leaders. Clarkson was providentially raised up to lead 
in tliis great work. Wilberforce, and others of like 
spirit, were liis associates. Buxton, Lusliington, and oth- 
ers, pleaded the cause in the British Parliament. Eman- 
cipation, by law, was the result. Such men as Franklin, 
Jefferson, and the best leaders of American independence, 
were among the pleaders for freedom. The best divines 
of the age preached and pleaded the good cause, such 
as Weslev, Edwards, and a host of others. State after 
state proclaimed fi'eedom. Happy was it for them that 
they obeyed the voice of justice and mercy. 

But many states refused to let the oppressed go free. 
They have fortified themselves, like Pharaoh and the 
Egyptians, against freedom, and have resorted to the 
most subtile policy of plans, ways and means, to keep 
the people in bondage. Perhaps they will soon hear the 
expostulations of our Moseses and Aarons. We hope 
and pray that they may. But Moses had a commission, 
not merely to petition and expostulate — he had one to do 
the work itself, should expostulation be in vain. What 
deliverers God may raise up from among the sons of the 
oppressed, even fugitives from labor, like Moses, we can 
not tell. Such men as Frederick Douglass may not be 
despised. Judging from some specimens of his writing, 
and speeches which we heard, he is not a man to be 
despised, and will compare with the best of our southern 
statesmen in ability. We can not tell what sons of op- 
pression may now, or will be, in reserve, under God's 
providence, to head insurrections, or foreign black troops, 
out of the fourteen millions of colored people now in the 
western continent and its islands. We pray that the 
voice of justice and mercy may be heard in due time, to 
avert these calamities. 

12. The punishments on the Egyptians, for persevering 



EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 123 

in their oppression, are mere specimens of what God has 
done in former ages, and what he hath declared he will 
do in the future in like cases. The ten plagues of Egypt 
are well known, as the judgments of God on account 
of ojDpression. Out of the very system of slavery its 
plagues will arise. The slaves and their masters, in the 
nature of the case, are converted into enemies. On the 
side of the oppressors are to be found the instrument- 
alities of war. -There is the armed force, the domina- 
tion, the expedients of disabilities, and the prohibitions 
of emancipation operating. 

On the other hand, there is the sense of wrong, and 
the judgment of natural conscience, without any other 
teacher, whether preacher or book, demonstrating this 
wrong to the untutored slave. Then there is hatred, 
and ^ypo^r/^y, and a well-disguised spirit of resistance to 
all this. Then the inherent elements of slavery, which 
we have not space here to enumerate, furnish the seeds 
of future calamities growing out of the system. There 
is the indolence and want of economy of the slaves. 
There is the idleness of the masters and their families, 
who become consumers but not producers. There is the 
exhausted soil, which deteriorates its value. The very 
staples of production, as sugar and cotton, are liable to 
fluctuations. There is, too, the strong arms of the civil- 
ized world almost threatening invasion, and in due time 
they may come to the onset. The specimens of filibus- 
tering exhibited by southern slaveholders themselves, are 
pretty fair precedents for similar operations, which may 
be carried on in the free states, Canada, the West Indies, 
and other countries. There are arrows enough in God's 
quiver to pierce the hearts of all Avho make a business 
of oppression, and God will do this unless the oppressed 
are permitted to go free. 

13. The deliverance of the Hebrews from bondage. 



124 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

and the deliverance of slaves from slavery, are founded 
on the same great principles of justice and mercy. 

(1.) The injustice is the same in both cases. It is as 
unjust for white Americans to retain black Americans in 
slavery as it was in the Egyptians to do the same with 
the Hebrews. All the right in either case is derived from 
mere power. The law of Egypt was as much law as the 
slave laws are. It is difficult for us to free the slaves ; 
it was also difficult for the Egyptians to do it. Still God 
required them to do it, as he does also require us to do 
the same. The Egyptians had power to enslave the He- 
brews, and they did it. We have power to enslave the 
Africans, and we do the same. 

Besides, we have less plea on our side than the Egyp- 
tians had. The Hebrews were not mere chattels or things 
converted into property and marketable. Ours has this 
under more aggravated circumstances than any slave sys- 
tem that ever existed. Hence, if ten plagues were the 
awards of justice for Hebrew bondage, more than twenty 
must be our proportion. The women and children es- 
caped the yoke among the Egyptians ; but our system 
seizes the mother and child as soon as the infant sees 
the light, and puts the chains on the one, and robs the 
mother of her darling. This is the worst of all, and is 
fundamental with us. The following from the Brunswick 
(Ga.) Advocate, is but a specimen: 

''WANTED TO HIRE. 
"The undersigned wish to hire one thousand negroes 
to work on the Brunswick Canal, of whom one-third 
may be Avomen. Sixteen dollars will be paid per month |j 
for steady, prime men, and thirteen dollars for women. 

"F. & A. Pratt, 
*'P. M. Nightingale. 
'' Bnmmicic, Jan. 25, 1839." 



EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 125 

(2.) The tlireatenings are applicable in both cases. 
All the parts of Egyptian bondage are condemned by 
almighty God. We have the same end in view to keep 
between three and four millions in slavery. Our means 
are a little different. The Egyptians killed the surplus, 
and made the bondage heavier in work, superintendence, 
and the withdrawal of material. This was simple and 
summary, and pronounced wise by the projector Pharaoh. 
Ours is a complicated system of arrangements. We 
make constitutions to do the work ; in their structure all 
but unchangeable. We make laws to carry it out. We 
have federal combinations of our great Union sworn to 
accomplish this by supreme judges, irresponsible as to 
the decision, by armies and navies. Our other arrange- 
ments are subordinately administrative. We keep the 
slaves in ignorance, forbid them to assemble for any pur- 
pose, excej)t under the strictest surveillance; prevent them 
from going from plantation to plantation ; pursue them 
when they run away ; and a thousand other means of 
subjugation and degradation, at variance with justice 
and mercy. Unless the Almighty be subject to change, 
our slavery is as abhorrent to him as that of Egypt was, 

(3.) The judgments of God must be the same in sub- 
stance in both cases. The judgments may not proceed 
from direct miracles. They may be of a very different 
class, but the same end must be accomplished — the liberty 
of the oppressed. A comparison of the moral, social, 
civil, and religious effects of freedom and slavery will 
furnish the answer to the inquiry here. (See American 
Slavery, by the author, Vol. I.) 

(4.) The deliverance must be the same in both cases. 
The object is to deliver the oppressed from their op- 
pressors. This is the work to be done. The jubilee 
among the Jews finished all contracts of service of every 
sort. Christ's jubilee proclaimed by himself — Luke iv. 



126 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

18,19 — M'ill accomplish this. The second Psalm points 
out the way. If the voice of warning and of mercy 
will not he heard, the great Father will, hy the stroke of 
justice, dash in pieces the nation who is deaf to right, 
truth, and mercy. 

14. It remains for us to present the Scriptural argu- 
ments drawn from Egyptian bondage against slavery, and 
in favor of freedom. 

(1.) The deliverance from the house of bondage, or the 
house of servants, as the margin has it, is employed as a 
general argument toward obedience to all God's com- 
mandments. ''And God spake all these words, saying, 
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of 
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage or serv- 
ants." Exodus XX, 1, 2. This is the preface to the ten 
commandments ; and the deliverance from Egypt was a 
reason for observing them. And the observance of these 
commandments would prevent forever any recurrence 
to bondage among the Hebrews, or in the world. The 
fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and tenth commandments, 
are directly against slavery, and all the others are indi- 
rectly against it, and for liberty. The argument is, that 
as you have been delivered from bondage, observe God's 
commandments, as the observance of them will prevent 
the existence of slavery, or destroy it where it does exist. 
Religion and cruelty can not walk together. Justice and 
mercy can not endure slavery. Honesty and stealing men 
are at war. Marriage destroys it. Obedience to parents 
destroys it. Covetousness and other vices will breed 
slavery. Truth, righteousness, and justice, are at war 
with it. The very name, "the Lord thy God," as com- 
prehending the attributes of Jehovah, is at war with 
the system. "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and 
truth, keeping mercy unto thousands, forgiving iniquity. 



EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 127 

transgression, and sin, and that will hj no means clear 
the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the 
children, and upon the children's children, unto the third 
and fourth generations." Exodus xxxiv, 6, 7. God's 
commandments, like himself, are at variance with wrong 
of all sorts. 

(2.) Because the Hebrews were bondmen and strangers 
in Egypt, they were required to remember the poor and 
the stranger, and not enslave them. "Ye shall not vex 
a stranger nor oppress him, for ye were strangers in the 
land of Egypt." Exodus xxii, 21. "Also, thou shalt 
not oppress a stranger : for ye know the heart of a 
stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." 
Exodus xxiii, 9. "And if a stranger sojourn with thee 
in vour land, ve shall not vex him. But the stranger 
that dAvelleth with you, shall be unto you as one born 
among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye 
were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord." 
Leviticus xix, 33, 34. "He doth execute the judgment 
of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in 
giving him food and raiment. Love ye, therefore, the 
stranger, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." 
Deuteronomy x, 18, 19. 

The Israelites were required not to vex strangers, be- 
cause they were once strangers in Egypt, and they ought 
to know both the heart and feelings of strangers. They 
were required not to oppress strangers, because they were 
once oppressed in Egypt. This applies to strangers in 
general, and not merely proselytes to the Jewish religion. 
It implies all other persons of any other country that so- 
journ in their land, as the Hebrews in Egypt, where the 
inhospitalities and the evils they met were to be remem- 
bered as motives to a different behavior. Strangers have 
a double title to humanity and protection, because they 
are especially liable to imposition and oppression. It 



128 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

was also wise to treat them kindly, because they would 
soon become proselytes to the gate, if not proselytes to 
the covenant. Hence, *'Vex not a stranger;" **Love 
him as yourself;" for "ye were strangers in the land 
of Egypt." 

The wisest and best men among the heathens consid- 
ered love to strangers as one of the characteristics of the 
divinity. The Zcv? Sfi'toj, the god of strangers, was the 
peculiar attribute of Jupiter, their supreme deity, benign 
to mankind, and the pattern of universal benevolence. 
Stabius mentions a law of Charondas requiring **to re- 
ceive every stranger with kindness and humanity, and 
send them away in peace, in reverence to Jupiter, the god 
of strangers, who is as a god to all in common, and a 
narrow inspector of those who obey or violate the laws 
of hospitality." See Homer, Odyss., xiv, 65-69 — Pope's 
translation — 

" It never was our guise, 
To slight the poor, or aught humane despise ; 
For Jove unfolds the hospitable door, 
'Tis Jove that sends the stranger and the poor." 

The hospitality of Christians, as Sozomen in his Ec- 
clesiastical History states, is eulogized in a letter by the 
Emperor Julian, apostate as he was. 

Surely these lessons, taught in the texts we have quoted 
above, show that no Hebrew should ever treat any 
stranger, not born in the land, as a slave, as is fully de- 
clared in the Mosaic code, as we shall show the same is 
the Christian law. No stranger, or any other, is to be 
treated as slaves. The Anglo-Saxons themselves are 
strangers in America, or the sons of strangers ; and be- 
cause they were even politically oppressed, though never 
enslaved, they threw off the dominion which oppressed 
them. The remembrance of mere political wrongs, and 
that they are the descendants of strangers, should teach 



EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. 129 

them to abhor slavery, and set the oppressed free. And 
the Africans here are just as much Americans by birth 
as the Anglo-Saxon race is. And for oppressed strangers 
to oppress another class of strangers, is doubly wrong. 

(3.) The redemption of the Hebrews from Egyptian 
bondage was a reason why no Hebrews should be en- 
slaved. "For they are my servants, which I brought 
forth out of the land of Egypt : they shall not be sold 
as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, 
but shalt fear thy God. For unto me the children of 
Israel are servants ; they are my servants whom I brought 
forth out of the land of Egypt : I am the Lord your 
God." Leviticus xxv, 42, 43, 55. As God redeemed 
every Israelite out of Egyptian bondage, they were, 
therefore, to consider themselves as his servants, and to 
devote themselves to him. Having thus acc^uired their 
liberty, by the interposition of God, they were bound 
not to enslave one another, or allow it to be done among 
them. 

(4.) Hence, the Jewish code absolutely prohibited the 
enslavement of Hebrews. And as the same code forbade 
also the enslavement of strangers, all enslaving is for- 
bidden expressly by the instructions given respecting 
Egyptian bondage. Of course the same is forbidden to 
all Christians. The liberty enjoyed by Christian people, 
whose ancestors were mostly enslaved, as is the case with 
the white Americans, ought to be a reason against keep- 
ing in blast the furnace of Egypt, and its severe bondage. 



130 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 

Those who appeal to the Bible in defense of slavery, 
make the argument from the Mosaic laws prominent, and 
consider this decisive. They state that slavery existed 
among the Hebrews, and was tolerated by law ; that it 
was the subject of legal enactments ; that the Hebrew peo- 
ple -might own slaves. These expositors never attempt to 
show what sort of service was approved by the Mosaic 
law. Nor have they, as far as we can learn, ever tried 
what effect the spirit and principles of the Mosaic code 
would have on our slavery. They have never allowed 
themselves to see how a jubilee would affect our system. 
Had every slave been set free at the end of the first fifty 
years from 1776, or in 1826, and with a prospect of an- 
other such process in 1876, there would soon be an end 
to the system. Or had every seventh year come in with 
its release, the doom of slavery would soon be fixed. If 
all those called slaves were to make their own contracts 
in the matter, and the masters could never sell slaves, 
how many slaves would be now in the United States ? 

In prosecuting our inquiries on this subject, we will 
pursue the following order of discussion : 

I. The various classes of servants, and the different 
modes of becoming such. 

II. The constitutional laws, principles, and usages of 
service among the Hebrews. 

III. The rights and privileges of servants. 
lY. Comparison between service and slavery. 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. loi 

I. The various classes of servants among the Hebrews, 
and the modes of their becoming servants. 

The various classes of servants found among the He- 
brews may be arranged in the following order. There 
was the hired servant, whose contract lasted for three 
vears, or a dav at a time. There was the Hebrew servant 
to Hebrevv's, for six years, or to the jubilee, whose services 
were bought for a jDrice, by contract between the servant 
and master. There was the foreign servant, by purchase 
from himself, by contract to the year of jubilee. The 
second class has several varieties, so that the folloAving 
will make as accurate a class as we can gather from the 
Mosaic code, concerning whom there are special regula- 
tions given, so as to prevent any of them from running 
into slavery, as well as to j)rohibit any thing cruel or 
unjust, either in regard to servant or master. 

1. The hired servant. 

2. The poor Hebrew non-slaveholder, or sexennial serv- 
ant, who sold himself six years to a Hebrew. 

3. The ear-bored servant, or poor non-freeholder, w^ho 
sold himself for life, or to the jubilee, or to the death of 
his master. 

4. The wife and children of the ear-bored servant. 

5. The daughter sold by her father for a wife. 

6. The poor Hebrew freeholder, who sold himself to 
a Hebrew. 

7. The poor Hebrew freeholder, \A\q sold himself to 
the rich stranger, or heathen. 

8. The thief sold for theft. 

9. The heathen servants. 

1. The hired servant was one who worked for wages, 
by the day, or for a longer period, as was agreed on be- 
tween him and his master or employer. It would seem 
as if some, at least, of the hired servants contracted for 
three years at a time. (Deuteronomy xv, 18.) A sex- 



132 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

ennial servant, who served six years, was worth a double 
hired servant, who served only three years. This seems 
indicated by Isaiah xvi, 14 : ** Within three years, as 
the years of a hireling." The value, however, of the 
sexennial servant seems to be, that his services were pro- 
cured for a small original cost ; that he served for mere 
support for himself and family, during his term of serv- 
ice, and more labor was commonly exacted from him 
than from a hired servant. (Leviticus xxv.) No rigor 
was exercised over a hired servant ; whereas, over the 
sexennial servant a moderate degree was expected, if not 
allowable. 

2. The sexennial servants. 

The Mosaic code on this class of servants is as fol- 
lows : "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he 
shall serve ; and in the seventh he shall go out free for 
nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by 
himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out 
with him." Exodus xxi, 2, 3. The law reads more full 
in Deuteronomy, and is as follows : " And if thy brother, 
an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold [or sell 
himself^ unto thee, and serve thee six years ; then on the 
seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. And 
when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not 
let him go away empty ; thou shalt furnish him liberally 
out of thy flock, and out of thy fleece, and out of thy 
winepress ; of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath 
blessed thee, thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt 
remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of 
Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee : therefore I 
command thee this thing to-day." Deuteronomy xv, 
12-15. 

The laws respecting male and female Hebrew servants 
are here delivered first ; no doubt to exhibit just feelings 
of humanity, both to male and female ; especially to 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 133 

females, who always have hceu treated worse than males 
by the codes of slavery. Tertullian justly calls these laws 
the inece])ts of humanity. Perpetual service, or slavery, 
is here forbidden. It w^as an excellent provision in these 
laws, that no man could finally injure himself, by any 
rash, foolish, or precipitate act. No man could make 
himself a servant for more than six years by one con- 
tract. 

The utmost term of service for Hebrew men and women, 
was six years. The servants in this case sold themselves, 
or, rather, their services. Sometimes malefactors were 
sold by the judges. (Exodus xxii, 3.) Sometimes insolv- 
ent debtors were sold by their creditors. (2 Kings iv, 1 ; 
Matthew xviii, 25.) Sometimes very poor persons sold 
themselves. (Leviticus xxv, 39.) No such person was 
to serve more than six years ; on the seventh, or on 
the year of jubilee, he was to go out free. It is supposed, 
however, that the term, six years, refers to the sahhatlc 
years ; for in whatever period between two sabbatical 
years the service began, it could not reach beyond the 
next sabbatical year. If the servant commenced on the 
third year after sabbatical year, he had only three years to 
serve ; if the fifth, but one. Tliis law is one of the most 
striking of the Mosaic code. It was an abridgment of 
civil liberty in favor of liberty, and to prevent injustice 
and oppression, and was worthy of a divine Lawgiver. 

As to the buying, or purchase of a servant, we may 
here stop to examine the jDroper import of this transac- 
tion. The statutes quoted above — Exodus xxi, 2, 3, 
and Deuteronomy xv, 12-15 — limit the voluntary sales 
of native Hebrew servants to the period of six years ; 
while adopted foreign servants, as appears from Leviti- 
cus xxv, 44-46, and other passages, might sell themselves 
for still longer periods, even to the jubilee. The political 
reason, or policy of this course seemed to be that foreign- 



134 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

ers could not hold real estate in the nation any longer 
than the jubilee, when all the land in the country reverted 
back to its original owners, or their heirs — see Levit- 
icus XXV, 10, 13, etc. — so that poor foreigners could con- 
tract for more than six years, though none were permitted 
to extend beyond the jubilee. 

In the law above quoted the description is, "If thou 
buy [procure] an Hebrew servant," etc. The inquiry is, 
did the servants sell themselves as free and voluntary 
servants, or were they sold as free and voluntary servants, 
or were they sold by third persons to others, as slaves, as 
Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites ? The words buy and 
sell prove nothing either way. So far as Ave know any 
thing about the modes of sales of service, the servants 
sold themselves, by free and voluntary contract, just as 
poor foreign emigrants have done. The Egyptians sold 
themselves and their land to Pharaoh ; and Joseph bought 
them and their land for Pharaoh. (Genesis xlvii, 19, 23.) 
The poor Hebrew, who sold himself to the stranger, is a 
specimen of the same sort of a voluntary sale of one's 
self. (Leviticus xxv, 47.) The use of the words and 
phrases here alluded to proves nothing against this view 
of the matter, because a person who sells himself is still 
hoiight and sold, just as the Egyptians were, or the poor 
Hebrew w^is. Besides, were this statute intended to reg- 
ulate slave sales, thev certainlv would not be limited to 
six years, but the sale would be in perpetuity, like the 
sales of other property. The statute w'as, therefore, in- 
tended to regulate free and voluntary service, and to pre- 
vent its running into slavery, or perpetual service. This 
is further proved by the case of the ear-bored servant, 
who could not be continued in ser^'ice over six years with- 
out a new contract. 

The service among the Hebrews was for the most part 
voluntary. The buying a Hebrew servant legitimately 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 135 

implies the huying Jam from himself; tliat is, buying his 
services. These servants were never made to serve by 
force, against their will, except as a punishment for 
crime. We have no evidence that the law allowed any 
master to sell his servant. A man could sell himself — 
Leviticus xxv, 47 — or an officer of the law may have 
sold a thief to serve long enough to make legal restitu- 
tion, if he were not able to make restitution otherwise. 
A man's selling himself or his services, was a voluntary 
act, and yet the terms employed are sometimes such as 
though he were sold by a master. 

At the end of the six years' service, or in the seventh 
year, the Hebrew servant, his Hebrew wife and children, 
were to be free from anv obli^-ation of future service. 
'' In the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he 
came in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he 
were married, then his wife shall go out with him." Ex- 
odus xxi, 2, 3. "In the seventh year thou shalt let him 
s'O free from thee." Deuteronomv xv, 12. If he and his 
wife came in together, they went out together. Jerome 
says that "he shall have the same coat in going out, as 
when he came in." That is, he shall have as good cloth- 
ing when he went out, as a matter of right, as when he 
came in. \ye must infer, too, that the children will also 
go with the mother, were there any. For in the next 
class of servants, namely, the ear-bored servant, ih^. chil- 
dren remained servants with the strange wife, given to 
him by his master, till the jubilee. And where the chil- 
dren of Hebrew parents are mentioned in connection with 
service, they go with the parents, as in the case of him 
who became servant to a stranger, it is said, "He shall 
go out in the year of jubilee, both lie, and his children 
with him." Leviticus xxv, 54. 

But though the sexennial servant, when he went out 
free, at the sabbatic vear, could claim no more bv his 



136 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

right of contract, but just as much as he brought with 
him, yet the master was hound to supply him bountifully 
from his own stores. The law in the code reads thus : 
"And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou 
shalt not let him go away empty : thou shalt furnish him 
liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy fleece, and out 
of thy winepress : of that wherewith the Lord thy God 
hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. And thou 
shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of 
Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee : therefore I 
command thee this thing to-day. It shall not seem hard 
unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee ; 
for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee, 
in serving thee six years : and the Lord thy God shall 
bless thee in all that thou doest." Deuteronomy xv, 13, 
14, 15, 18. What a merciful law this was ! Because 
the servant, during his service, could not make any prop- 
erty, he must not go away empty, for he must be furnished 
liberally. He was to be supplied from the fioclc, so as to 
have some to breed and to work ; out of the thrashing 
floor, so as to have grain for seed, and for bread ; out of 
the winepress, so as to have even the comforts of life 
when he retired. This was God's command. "I com- 
mand thee this thing to-day." And it was urged from 
the consideration of Egyptian bondage or slavery, which 
no Hebrew was ever allowed to sanction in any shape. 
Another reason was the valuable services of the servant, 
on account of his six years' service, and that he was 
worth a double hired servant. And the third reason for 
God's command was, that God would bless the master in 
all he did, on this very account. 

Not only so, but even during the sexennial term of serv- 
ice, any poor man, whether servant or otherwise, was to be 
supplied with the comforts of life. The Hebrew was not 
to harden his heart against him, or shut his hand, or 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 137 

calculate on the year of release, but to aid him liberally. 
(Deuteronomy xv, 7-11.) 

There is clearly, in the case of the sexennial servant, 
no countenance to slavery. The term of service was for 
six years at farthest. The service was by contract, and 
there was no entailment of service on the posterity, as the 
husband, wife, and children were all free. The divine 
Lawgiver, considering that the purchases of human be- 
ings were entailing involuntary service, or slavery, on 
the nations out of Israel, ordained, by the case of this 
servant, to prevent the very existence of slavery among 
his chosen people. The servant alone, in this case, was 
the seller, the master was the purchaser ; the transaction 
was a mutual contract between both ; the time of its dura- 
tion must never exceed six years, then entire freedom was 
to follow ; and the servant must have a fair beginning 
of means in the world, to enable him to live in future 
as a freeman. No more direct antislavery arrangement 
could be made. 

3. The case of the ear-hored servant. 

The law in this case reads as follows : "If his master 
have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or 
daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, 
and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall 
plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my chil- 
dren ; I will not go out free : then his master shall bring 
him to the door, or unto the door-post ; and his master 
shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve 
him forever." Exodus xxi, 4—6. In Deuteronomy we 
have the following: "And it shall be, if he say unto 
thee, I will not go away from thee, because he loveth thee 
and thine house, because he is well with thee ; then thou 
i shalt take an a^wl, and thrust it through his ear unto the 
door, and he shall be thy servant forever ; and also unto 

. thy maid-servant thou shalt do likewise." Deuteronomy 

12 



138 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

XV, 16, 17. On this law we submit the following 
remarks : 

The servant who was now free, after six years' service, 
was contractor in the transaction, acted voluntarily, and 
had the right to accept or refuse the future relation of 
servant to his former master. This can never apply to 
our slaves, who do not enter on their condition by choice, 
but by force and necessity of law. 

The master was hound to retain the servant in his 
service, if the servant desired it. And as the servant 
was a Hebrew, it was contrary to law for him to be a 
bondman, or menial servant, but to be as a hired serv- 
ant. (Leviticus xxv, 50, 53.) The master was bound 
to retain the servant, from Avhose wife and children he 
had any claim of service, when the servant himself so 
desired it. The master could not be released while he 
retained the wife and children ; and it was for the benefit 
of the servant, the wife, and children, that the law was 
made. So far from its being oppressive to the servant, 
it was the security of his natural right to his wife and 
his children, and made a separation a voluntary act on 
his own part. 

The ceremony by which the new relation was inaugu- 
rated was a singular one. It seems to imply that he 
was now attached to his master's house and family, of 
which his wife and children formed a part ; and that he 
was bound to hear all his master's orders, and ohey them. 
The case, however, was to come under the cognizance 
of judges, so as to secure the legal rights of all con- 
cerned. 

As to the duration of the service, it is said to be for- 
ever. The word forever here can not refer to eternity, or 
unending time, but to a limited period, whether the end 
of the servant's life, the lifetime of the master, or to the 
next jubilee. That it could not extend beyond the year 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 139 

of jubilee, is plain from the laws of this institution, 
which ended all servitudes, whether of the Hebrew or 
the stranger. 

The Rabbins contend that such servants were set free 
at the death of their master, and did not descend to 
heirs. And this is the more probable, because the law 
was for the benefit of the servant, and it would seem to 
be unreasonable to extend it to heirs. At any rate, this 
case gives no countenance to our slavery, because our 
system is against the will of the slave, and knows no 
jubilee, or sabbatic release, and does not end at the death 
of the master. 

4. The loife and cldldren of the ear-bored servant. 

The law in this case reads thus: **If his master hath 
given him a wife, and she hath borne him sons or daugh- 
ters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and 
he shall go out by himself," or with his body. (Exodus 
xxi, 4.) On this case we observe : 

The master, who gave his man-servant a female-servant 
to wife, still retained authority over her as his servant, 
till her time of service expired. Her children were also 
his. But this was only for a limited period, as children, 
or minors. 

As the wife must have been a heathen woman, she 
could not enjoy the privilege of the sabbatical year; but 
her husband might quit her, and enter on his liberty this 
year. It would not follow, however, that the marriage 
was dissolved, because he might serve another,^ and still 
live with his wife and children. The wife must have been 
a stranger, because a Hebrew had no power to give a He- 
brew woman to another for wife, unless it were his own 
daughter. At any rate, the jubilee terminated the service 
of all persons capable of enjoying their freedom. As to 
the case of minors, we have no reason to suppose their 
service continued longer than their minority. 



140 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

It has been objected by some, *' that the master^s prop- 
erty in a female-servant is here distinctly recognized, and 
he is allowed to dissolve her marriage, separate her from 
her husband, and retain her and her children in perpetual 
bondage." This is supposed to be analogous to Ameri- 
can slavery, and to justify the master in disannulling the 
marriage relation of the slaves. 

The ground assumed in the objection is false. The 
bondman in this case is a Hebrew. He could be bound 
to service only six years. His wife could not be a He- 
brew, because she as well as he would be free at the end 
of six years, or at the same time with her husband. His 
wife, furnished him by his master, must therefore have 
been a stranger, or heathen woman. The master could 
have permanent control over no other. They could con- 
tract for any length of time, even to the jubilee. When 
the six years' service of the Hebrew had expired, the time 
of his wife's service had not expired, according to her 
contract with her master, made before her marriage, and 
which her marriage left unimpaired. She must therefore 
fulfill her bargain. But this did not annul the marriage, 
nor had the master any power to dissolve it. 

The children were horn in his house. They were part 
of his domestics. They belonged to his family. He 
was bound by the law to have the males circumcised, and 
all of them properly instructed and educated, till they 
would be of age. Nor was the husband necessarily sepa- 
rated from his wife and family. If he pleased, he could 
compel his master to retain him in his service till the 
year of jubilee, and his wife and children could be kept 
no longer. There was no clause in the law touching the 
case of the ear-bored servant, authorizing, or even per- 
mitting the master to sell either him, her, or the children. 
Even if the husband did not choose to avail himself of 
this law, what would hinder him from getting employ in 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 141 

the neighborhood, and still, at least occasionally, enjoy 
the society of his wife and children ? There is no just 
likeness between this case and American slavery. 

5. The daughter sold by her father for a wife. 

The law on this case is as follows : ** If a man sell his 
daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the 
men-servants do. If she please not her master, who hath 
betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed ; 
to sell her unto a strange nation, he shall have no power, 
seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. And if he hath 
betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal Avith her after 
the manner of daughters. If he take him another wife, 
her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he 
not diminish. And if he do not these things unto her, 
then shall she go out free without money." Exodus 
xxi, 7-11. 

It appears very plainly from the account given in Le- 
viticus, that the law laid down in the preceding verses, 
respecting the sexennial servant, held good with regard to 
female, as well as to male-servants. The law that gov- 
erned parents selling daughters, was different from that 
regulating sales on other accounts ; for she should not go 
out as the men-servants, or female-servants do, by gain- 
ing her liberty, after a servitude of six years ; other and 
easier terms are assigned her, as the law in the case ex- 
pressly provides. 

No man could sell his daughter, as the Jews say, unless 
in cases of extreme poverty ; and he had this permission 
only while she was unmarriageable, and it was also on the 
condition, that when mature, she would be the wife of 
her master or his son. It was something like apprentice- 
ship, in which the parents bind the child for a term of 
years, and have from the master so much per week, during 
that period. 

The daughter, sold by her father, was not sold for a 



142 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

slave, but for a wife, as the law expressly declares ; be- 
cause, 

(1.) She was purchased in her maidenhood, to become 
her master's wife at womanhood. After that period the 
master must marry her ; or she might claim redemption, 
or, in other words, freedom. If he betrothed her to his 
son, it was on the condition that the marriage should 
be consummated when she was come to maturity. 

(2.) The fact that she was purchased from her father, 
does not prove that she was a slave, or the property of 
the purchaser. She was bought for a wife. Wives were 
often bought by their husbands, though they were never 
to serve as servants. So Boaz bought Euth. (Ruth iv, 
10.) Merea bought his wife. Jacob bought two wives 
for fourteen years' service. Shechem offered to buy Di- 
nah, Jacob's daughter. Leah and Rachel say of their 
father, "He hath sold us." The custom, indeed, Avas as 
common in ancient times, as receiving a dow^ry now with 
wives. 

(3.) The master had no power to sell her to a strange 
nation, or, rather, to any other person. (Leviticus xxii, 
10.) The Hebrews had no power to sell, in any case, 
any of their own people, whether male or female, to those 
of another nation. He must allow her to be redeemed, 
if he did not marry her ; and all he could require was to 
have the money refunded that was paid for her, or a just 
proportion of it, according to the laws of redemption. 

(4.) If she is betrothed to his son, she must be treated 
as a daughter. He shall give her the same dowry he 
would give to one of his own daughters. If the son 
married another woman, she must stand in the relation 
of a second wife ; and he was bound to make no abate- 
ment to her in the privileges of the first wife, either in 
her food, raiment, or duty of marriage. If the father or 
the son should marry her, and afterward take another 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 143 

wife, her food, raiment, and marriage dut}'- must not 
diminish. 

(5.) Should she not be recognized any longer as a 
wife she could not be retained as a servant, but she was 
to go out free without money, that is, without being 
redeemed. 

The case is a very plain one, that a daughter sold by 
her father was sold only to become a wife ; and when 
this stipulation failed she was free. Hence, she never 
was, and never could be, according to the law of Moses, 
a slave. 

In this case we see the strong, unbending antislavery 
nature of the Mosaic code. In the heathen nations daugh- 
ters could be sold for slaves, and their children would 
also be slaves. The Mosaic code, in the case of the 
daughter sold by her father, prevented this, and required 
that the result should be freedom and not slavery. 

6. The i^oor Hebrew freeholder who sold himself to a 
Hebreic. 

A Hebrew reduced to poverty might sell himself to a 
Hebrew, not as a bond-servant, but as a hired servant, 
till the jubilee. The law of Moses, in this case, reads as 
follows: "And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be 
waxen poor, and be sold unto thee ; [or sell himself;] thou 
shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant, but as an 
hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, 
and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee : and then 
shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with 
him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the 
possession of his fathers shall he return. For they are my 
servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt : 
they shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule 
over him with rigor ; but shalt fear thy God." Leviticus 
XXV, 39-43. 

(1.) This statute is very different from that in Exodus 



144 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

respecting the sexennial servant. (Exodus xxi, 2, etc. ; 
Deuteronomy xv, 12, etc.) It relates to another class 
of persons. The sexennial servant is bought for six 
years, but he may, at pleasure, extend the time of service 
to the jubilee. In the case of the poor servant in Leviti- 
cus no mention is made of a six years' engagement, nor 
of his having the ear bored as a test of additional service. 
The sexennial servant shall not be sent away empty, but 
shall be furnished liberally. Nothing is said of his re- 
turning to his possession. That in Leviticus makes no 
provision for furnishing liberally when he departs ; but 
declares that he "shall return to the possession of his 
fathers." A servant of the one class was called an abed. 
A servant of the other could not be sold with the sale, 
nor be compelled to serve with the service of an abed. 
The poverty of the sexennial servant shows that he needed 
supplies when his service was ended. He, likely, was a 
younger brother who was not a landholder, while the 
statute in Leviticus xxv, 39, provided for the first-boryiy 
the possessor of the inheritance of his father, who, from 
poverty, had been compelled to part with his real estate 
till the jubilee. The difference then is between two He- 
brew servants of one class, and Hebrew and heathen 
servants of another class. 

(2.) There is a marked distinction made here between 
the hired or temporary servant, and the permanent or 
sexennial servant. Both classes were paid ; but in sev- 
eral respects they were distinguished. Hired servants 
were paid daily at the close of their work. (Leviticus 
xix, 13 ; Deuteronomy xxiv, 14, 15 ; Job vii, 2 ; Mat- 
thew XX, 8.) Bought servants were paid in part in ad- 
vance, and a constant maintenance, and those that went 
out on the seventh year received a gratuity. (Deuter- 
onomy XV, 12, 13.) The hired v^exe paid in money; the 
bought servant received the gratuity, at least, in cattle, 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 145 

grain, and the product of the vintage. (Deuteronomy 
xiv, 17.) The hired servants supported their families out 
of their wages ; the bought servants and their families 
were supported by the masters besides their wages. 

The bought servants were, as a class, superior to the 
hired servants, possessing greater privileges, and occupy- 
ing a higher station in society. They were incorporated 
into the families of their masters ; were guests at family 
festivals and social solemnities, from which hired servants 
were excluded. Marriages took place between servants 
and their master's daughters. (1 Chronicles ii, 34, 35.*) 
Hired servants did not form such alliances. Bought 
servants and their descendants were treated with the same 
respect with other members of the family. This is ex- 
emplified in the cases of Abraham, Gideon, Saul, Jona- 
than, Elisha, and their servants. (Genesis xxv ; Judges 
vii, 11 ; 1 Samuel ix, 5, 22, and xv, 1-14.) No such 
ties seem to have existed between hired servants and their 
masters. Hired servants were mostly of the lower class. 
(Judges ix, 4; 1 Samuel ii, 5.) Traces of this aro 
found in the parables of the talents, of the prodigal son, 
etc., in the New Testament. Hebrews and strangers be- 
longed to each class indiscriminately. 

(3.) In the enjoyment of mere political privileges the 
hired servants among the Hebrews were more favored 
than the bought servants among strangers. No stranger 
could exercise any honorable political office, nor could 
he own the soil. The want of ownership in the soil. 



* " For the purchased servant, who is an Israelite or proselyte, shall fare 
as his master. The master shall not eat fine bread and his servant bread 
of bran : nor yet drink old wine, and give his servant new ; nor sleep on 
soft pillows and bedding, and his servant on straw. I say unto you that 
he that gets a, lyurchased servant does well to make him as his friend, or 
he will prove to his employe as if he had got himself a master." (Mai- 
monides, in Mishna Kiddushen, Chap. I, Sec. 2.) 

13 



146 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

perliaps, forms the reason wliy the one served six years, 
and the other to the jubilee. 

(4.) The servants purchased from the heathens are 
called, by way of distinction, the servants, not bondmen. 
They were tributaries, and were required to pay an an- 
nual tax to the government. The strangers were prop- 
erly the house servants employed in the families. The 
Jewish servants were almost exclusively agriculturists. 
(1 Samuel xi, 7 ; 1 Kings xix, 19 ; 2 Chronicles xxvi, 
10; Judges vi, 11.) Hence the regulation in the law 
under consideration, ** Thou shalt not compel him to 
serve as a bond-servant." "As an hired servant, and as 
a sojourner, shall he be with thee." His family organi- 
zation was to be preserved. Jarchi's comment on '' thou 
shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant," is, 
''The Hebrew servant is not to be required to do any 
thing that is accounted degrading — such as all offices of 
personal attendance, as loosing his master's shoe latchet, 
bringing him water to wash his feet and hands, waiting 
on him at table, dressing him, carrying things to and 
from his bath. The Hebrew servant is to Avork with his 
master as his son or brother in the business of his farm 
or other labor, till his legal release."' His family organi- 
zation was preserved, so that he lived with his wife and 
children, controlled them, and did not make a part of the 
household of his master, as the stranger or permanent 
servant did for the most part. 

(5.) "Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor." 
What is rigorous service ? Service which is not determ- 
ined, and whereof there is no need. To overlook the 
privileges of a Hebrew, and requiring services which a 
stranger or domestic servant might render, was rigorous. 
To overlook the distinction between servants of Jewish 
and Gentile peculiarities would be rigorous in reference 
to the Jew. The Egyptians made the Israelites serve 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 147 

witli rigor. (Exodus i, 13.) This rigor is affirmed of 
the amoKTii of labor, and the 7node of the exaction. The 
expression, "to serve with rigor," is never applied to the 
service of servants under the Mosaic system. The phrase, 
"thou shalt not rule over him with rigor," does not pro- 
hibit unreasonable exactions of labor, nor inflictions of 
cruelty. Such were provided against otherwise. But it 
forbids confounding the distinctions between a Jew and a 
stranger, by assigning the former to the same grade of 
service as to the other. 

7. T/iejmor Hebrew who is servant to a stranger. 

The law of this case reads as follows, and contains 
very clear expositions of the case: "And if a sojourner 
or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwell- 
eth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger 
or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's 
family : after that he is sold he may be redeemed again ; 
one of his brethren may redeem him : either his uncle or 
his uncle's son may redeem him, or any that is nigh of 
kin unto him of his family may redeem him ; or if he be 
able he may redeem himself. And he shall reckon with 
him that bought him from the year that he was sokbto 
him unto the year of jubilee ; and the price of his sale 
shall be according to the number of years, according to 
the time of an hired servant shall it be with him. If there 
be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall 
give again the price of his redemption out of the money 
that he was bought for. And if there remain but few 
years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall count with 
him, and according unto his years shall he give him 
again the price of his redemption. And as a yearly 
hired servant shall he be with him, and the other shall not 
rule with rigor over him in thy sight. And if he be not 
redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year 
of jubilee, both he and his children with him. For unto 



148 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

me tlie children of Israel are servants ; they are my serv- 
ants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt : I 
am the Lord your God.'* Leviticus xxv, 47-55. 

(1.) The purchaser, in this case, was a sojourner, 
stranger, or the son of a stranger, who became rich. 
As a stranger he could not be a freeholder, so as to 
possess real estate, especially fields or vineyards. The 
strangers were generally poor, but some became rich. 
God here provides that the sojourners should have the 
same legal advantages with the native Hebrew. But the 
Hebrew who sold himself to him had the peculiar privi- 
lege of redemption before the jubilee, or of the jubilee 
when it arrived. Yet the law wisely provides that the 
sojourner shall have full compensation, and that the price 
shall be exactly paid him. The stranger was required, 
too, to treat the Hebrew servant with the indulgence of a 
hired servant, in leaving him with his family, and that 
his service should not be rigorous or severe. 

(2.) As to the Hebrew servant, he was a freeholder; 
but he became poor, so that he could not support his 
family, seeing his property was sold or mortgaged unto 
the jubilee ; and to meet present wants he was compelled 
to sell himself, or, rather, his services, and to become a 
day-laborer, or as a hired servant. He, therefore, sold 
himself for money. He was not sold by another person ; 
for no such sale occurred among the Hebrews, except the 
thief for restitution, or the female maid or minor for a 
wife, but never for a servant, much less a slave. The 
sale of the poor freeholder was to the year of jubilee, 
with the privilege of redemj)tion at any time by himself 
or any other person. 

(3.) The servant had the right of redemption, either 
by himself or any one of his kindred, at any time before 
the jubilee. The price was to be reckoned according to 
the years from the time of redemption to the jubilee, at 



'mosaic code on service. 149 

the rate of a liirecl servant's wages. The fixed price was 
the wages of a hh-ed servant for the same length of time. 
There were no exactions in this case, or even bargains 
for high or low, bnt a determined rate. The Jews con- 
sidered themselves bound to redeem their poor brethren, 
lest they should be swallowed up by the heathen. On 
their return from the Babylonish captivity we find the 
following: *'We, after our ability, have redeemed our 
brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen.'* 
Nehemiah v, 8. 

(4.) He was to be treated "as a yearly hired servant." 
Hired servants were not incorporated into the families of 
their masters ; they retained their own family organiza- 
tion, without the surrender of any domestic privilege, or 
honor, or authority ; and this, even though they resided 
under the same roof with their master. While bought 
servants were associated with their master's families at 
meals, at the passover, and at other family festivals, hired 
servants and sojourners were not. (Exodus xii, 44, 45 ; 
Leviticus xxii, 10, 11.) Hired servants were not subject 
to the master in any such sense as the master's wife, chil- 
dren, and bought servants. Hence, the only form of 
oppressing hired servants is that of Iceeinng hack wages. 
To take away such privileges from the poor freeholder 
would be hard, or rigorous. It would be ruling over him 
with rigor. He was the head of a family, who had seen 
better days, now reduced to poverty. He was an Israel- 
ite. Abraham was his father. He was not a servant 
born in the house, nor a minor, whose minority had been 
sold by his father. He was the head of a family. 

(5.) He was at the utmost to be free at the jubilee. 
"If he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go 
out in the year of jubilee, both he and his children with 
him," or his entire family. 

(6.) The reason for this law was, 1. The Hebrews 



150 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY.* 

were the servants of the most high God ; and it was in- 
consistent that they shoukl be nnder the control of men 
as slaves. Hence, no slave was to be found in God's 
heritage, which he gave to Abraham and his descendants. 
2. Their ancestors had been in bondage in Egypt ; and as 
God brought them out of the house of bondage, he would 
never allow that Palestine could become another Egypt 
for those in behalf of whom he achieved so great a deliv- 
erance. 3. "I am the Lord thy God." The supreme 
authority of Jehovah hath established this law, and no 
man should infringe on it in the least. 

This was a very equitable law, both to the sojourner 
who had made the purchase, and to the Israelite who had 
sold himself. The Israelite might redeem himself, or one 
of his kindred might redeem him ; but this must not be 
done to the prejudice of the master. They were, there- 
fore, to reclvon the years he must have served from that 
time to the jubilee, and settle on the amount to corre- 
spond with the years. The Jews held that the kindred 
of such a person was bound, if in their power, to redeem 
him lest he should be swallowed up among the heathen. 
And we find — Nehemiah v, 8 — that this was done by the 
Jews on their return from the Babylonish captivity. 

The Israelites were a typical people. They represented 
Christians. And Christians are not merely servants of 
God, like the Jews, but they also are his sons, and should 
never become the slaves of men. (1 Corinthians vii, 2, 
3.) In the case before us, this servant was no slave. 
He sold himself, as a servant, for a term of years ; he 
had, by law, the right of redemption, and, at farthest, he 
and his family were free at the jubilee. It is a sad sight, 
indeed, to see Christians buying and selling their own 
Christian brethren and sisters to the highest bidder ; or 
which is, in fact, the same in reference to the sufferers, to 
see the great American nation engaged in this work, 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 151 

which God Avoiild not permit to enter Judea, but was ex- 
cluded by express enactments. 
(8.) The thief sold for his theft. 

The law is, "If he [the thief] have nothing, then he 
shall be sold for his theft." Exodus xxii, 3. 

The laws of the twelve tables ordained, *'He that is 
attacked by a robber in the night, let him not be punished 
if he kills him. If the robbery be committed by day, 
and if the robber be taken in the fact, let him be beaten 
with rods, and become the slave of him whom he rob- 
bed." (Twelve Tables. Laws I, II.) The Hebrew code 
would not allow the thief to be made a slave ; but it re- 
quired that he should be sold so long as his services were 
required to pay the proper assessment for theft. The res- 
titution required was fivefold, fourfold, double, etc., ac- 
cording to the articles stolen and the amount of injury 
done. (Exodus xxii, 1.) He was to be sold for his 
theft, or for services to the amount of the assessment 
made for such theft. The sale, too, was by the public 
officers. This case furnishes no analogy between it and 
our slavery. 

(9.) The heathen servants among the Hebrews. 
The law in this case is as follows: ''Both thy bond- 
men, [servants,] and thy bondmaids, [maid-servants,] 
which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are 
round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and 
bondmaids. Moreover, of the children of the strano-ers 
that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and 
of their families that are with you, which thev beo-at in 
your land : and they shall be your possession. And yo 
shall take them as an inheritance for your children after 
you, to inherit them for a possession ; they shall be your 
bondmen forever : but over your brethren the children of 
Israel, ye shall not rule over one another with rigor." 
Leviticus xxv, 44-46. 



152 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

If there were any slaves among tlie Hebrews, they must 
have become such under the provisions of this law ; for 
it is the most plausible support of slavery to be found in 
the Mosaic code. It, therefore, demands our most careful 
consideration. There can be no doubt but the Hebrews 
were authorized to purchase those of the surrounding 
nations for servants. But the question arises, of wlionn^ 
and lioio, and under what conditions did they purchase 
them ? Was this service to be during life as to the serv- 
ants, and hereditary as to their children ; or did they 
come under the operation of the jubilee, which pro- 
claimed liberty to all the inhabitants of the land ? If 
slavery was here authorized as to strangers and their de- 
scendants, there must have existed, in after times, a very 
large body of them in Judea, similar to the Helots in 
Greece, the slaves of Rome, and the slaves in America. 
We are prepared to show that no such class of Helots 
existed in Judea, and that this law does not authorize or 
establish such a system. When a southerner buys a 
slave, he buys of a third person, who claims the slave as 
his property ; and he is his property according to the 
slave laws. But in this case the stranger sold himself to 
the Hebrew, or consented to the sale ; and hence the pur- 
chase was a contract between tw^o parties, and, therefore, 
the system could not be slavery. But had the purchase 
been from third persons, the Mosaic code interfered so as 
to preclude slavery. 

Some very respectable names may be mentioned who 
have believed that this law tolerated, sanctioned, or estab- 
lished the slavery of aliens or strangers among the He- 
brews. This was Mr. Thomas Goodwin's ojDinion. (See 
his Moses and Aaron, c. x.) The conductors of the 
Princeton Repertory, in an article in 1836, are very posi- 
tive on this point. They say, "We do not know how 
this passage can be rendered plainer than it is, nor can 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 153 

we hope that any man, who is in such a state of mind as 
to prevent his seeing and admitting that it authorized the 
Hebrews to hold slaves, could be convinced, even if one 
rose from the dead." The conclusion to which we have 
come, on reading the above, is, that the writer of the 
article had never thoroughly studied the subject on which 
he decided ex cathedra, and was under the influence of 
those vague and pro-slavery teachings found in Cornelius 
a Lapide, and other Popish writers, and the general cur- 
rent of Protestant commentators, who follow the foot- 
steps of their Roman predecessors on this point, without 
ever carefully examining the Mosaic code on the subject. 
Among these we place Coke, Clarke, Benson, Professor 
Robinson, and many others, who, with Lapide, adopted 
the creed on this subject as taught in the Corpus Juris 
Canonici of the Church of Rome. 

First. The first part of our inquiry is, who were the per- 
sons that might be bought? The answer is, that they were 
heathens, strangers, that dwelt round about Palestine, or 
the children of strangers that were born in the country. 
The Hebrew word nj, ger, and nDJ, necher, signifies a trav- 
eler or stranger — one who comes from abroad, or from 
another place. They were those who came to dwell in 
Judea, or who embrace the religion of the Hebrews, not 
being Hebrews by birth. They are called in Greek 
li^oorjkvto^, a proselyte, a stranger, a foreigner. The Vul- 
gate calls them advence, immigrants, and peregrini, strang- 
ers, travelers. The French, from the Vulgate, calls them 
les etr angers, strangers. 

These may be divided into two classes — the heathens 
and the proselytes. The heathens comprise those who 
had not yet embraced the Christian religion, but had 
come to Judca to better their condition, and enjoy 
liberty. 

The Hebrews distinguish two kinds of proselytes — the 



154 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

first, the 2)7'oseI?/fe of the gate ; the second, the proselyte of 
justice. The first class, -without obliging themselves to 
be circumcised, or to receive any other ceremony of the 
law, feared and worshijDcd the true God, observing the 
seven precepts of Noah, such as avoiding idolatry, blas- 
phemy, incest, adultery, and murder. These might dwell 
in Judea, share in its outward prosperity, be jjrotected 
by its laws, and receive instruction respecting the true 
religion. These dwelt mostly at the gates or suburbs of 
cities, and sometimes within their walls. In the days of 
Solomon there were one hundred and fifty-three thousand, 
six hundred of these proselytes who were employed in 
building the temple. (2 Chronicles ii, 17, 18.) Many 
of these w^ere Canaanites, who had continued in the 
country since the days of Joshua. 

Proselytes of justice or righteousness, were those con- 
verted to Judaism, who had engaged themselves to receive 
circumcision, and to observe the whole law of Moses. 
They were then admitted to all the prerogatives of the 
people of Israel, with the exception that they could not 
be kings or rulers — could not own landed property, un- 
less houses, in certain cities or their suburbs. Boys under 
twelve years of age, and girls under thirteen, could not 
become proselytes, till they had obtained the consent of 
their parents ; or, in case of refusal, the concurrence of 
the officers of justice. Moses — Deuteronomy xxiii, 1, 2, 
3, etc. — excludes certain persons from the privileges of 
the people of Israel, or from the congregation of the 
Lord ; some forever, others only for a certain time. 
Eunuchs were excluded forever. Illegitimate children 
were not to be admitted till after the tenth generation. 
The same was the case with the Moabites and Ammonites. 
The Egyptians and Idumeans were admissible after the 
second generation. It was believed by the Jews, that the 
mixed multitude — Exodus xii, 38 ; Numbers xi, 4 — that 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 155 

came up from Egypt, were at least semi-heathens. Dr. 
Clarke computes them at twenty thousand, and says of 
them, ''This mongrel people, who had comparatively 
little knowledge of God, feeling the difficulties and 
fatigues of the journey, were the first to complain." 
Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, had embraced the 
Jewish religion. (Exodus xviii, 10.) 

From these strangers, foreigners, or their children born 
in Palestine, the Hebrews were permitted to procure, buy, 
or contract for servants, in the menial offices of their 
houses. As among the Hebrews so among the strangers, 
none but poor persons would become servants of any 
grade. For, a rich stranger would certainly not become 
a servant ; on the contrary, he could have servants himself, 
even a Hebrew servant, as we have already seen. (Levit- 
icus XXV, 45.) There is no doubt, too, that, among the 
strangers, those only sold themselves or became servants 
who were poor, and were, in consequence, compelled to 
bind themselves to serve for a number of years, which, by 
law, was limited by the jubilee. These, too, were em- 
j^loyed in the lowest grades of service, such as household 
service ; while the Hebrew servants were employed in the 
business of the field, and the more reputable pursuits 
of life. 

Second. The strangers, as a class, especially before 
they became proselytes of justice, were laid under cer- 
tain legal restraints and disabilities, to which Hebrews 
were not subject. The following are mentioned as prom- 
inent, though others might be mentioned : 

(1.) The law of Moses enjoined that, whenever the 
Jews should determine to have a king, they should not 
select a foreigner or stranger. " One from among thy 
brethren shalt thou set king over thee : thou mayest not 
set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother." 
Deuteronomy xvii, 15. The Talmud relates that, when 



156 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

King Agrippa, at the Sabbatic service, came to this pas- 
sage, his eyes filled with tears, because he remembered 
that he was not of the seed of the Jews. The peoj)le 
present being disposed to relieve him, cried out, three 
times, "Fear not, Agrippa, thou art our brother." On 
this ground the Jews proposed that insidious question to 
our Lord, "Is it lawful to give tribute to Cesar, or 
NOT ?" — Matthew xxii, 17 — for they were then under 
foreign power. We may also infer, that, as strangers 
could not be kings, they could not hold high, if any, 
political office in the Hebrew commonwealth. 

(2.) A Hebrew might receive usury from a stranger, 
but not from a Hebrew. " Unto a stranger thou mayest 
lend on usury, but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend 
upon usury." Deuteronomy xxiii, 20. As their neig''h- 
bors, as the Sidonians, Syrians, Egyptians, and others, 
made great gain by merchandise, it would be unreason- 
able that they should borrow money from the Israelites 
for nothing. It was also reasonable that the Israelites, 
whose business was husbandry, should lend money freely 
to one another, without interest, or not beyond common 
interest, their land not being a country of traffic, wherein 
money could be profitable, as in other countries. At any 
rate, the stranger labored under this disability compared 
with the Hebrews. 

(3.) A stranger could not oppress a Hebrew. Even 
when the HebrcAv sold himself to the rich stranger, he 
could not exact from him the services of a menial, such 
as from a hired servant. " As a yearly hired servant 
shall he be with him : and the other [the stranger] shall 
not rule over him in thy sight." Leviticus xxv, 53. 
That is, he must allow the Hebrew the most reputable 
service in his power, and not treat him as a menial, or 
a mere hired day-laborer, as among us. 

(4.) The heathen, or stranger, was as liable to be pun- 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 157 

islied for wicked conduct as any other. He was subject 
to law. If lie blaspliemed God he was to be put to death, 
^as any other transgressor. (Leviticus xxiv, 16.) 

(5.) The stranger was as much bound to abstain from 
leaven during the paschal feast as the Hebrew was. (Ex- 
odus xii, 19.) 

(6.) The uncircumcised stranger, foreigner, or hired 
servant, was prohibited from eating the passover. (Ex- 
odus xii, 43, 45.) The proselytes of the gate, or the 
heathen, could not eat the passover, or partake of the 
sacred festivals. But the proselytes of the covenant had 
the same rights as the Jews themselves, whether spiritual 
or temporal. 

(7.) The strangers were inferior to the Hebrews, as to 
the time of their service. The strangers were never pur- 
chased for six years, but always till the jubilee. The 
Hebrew servants, even when their ears were bored, never 
became an inheritance to the children of their master ; 
Avhereas, if the master of a Gentile died before the jubilee, 
the Gentile servant was inherited by the children, and 
retained till his whole time of service expired, reaching 
down to the jubilee. (Leviticus xxv, 46.) 

From the foregoing we conclude, that, as the strangers 
were not, as was right, entitled to the full privileges of 
Hebrews, till after a full and long probation, their service 
as servants had disabilities and disadvantages attached to 
it that would not apply to Hebrews. As heathens, being 
poor and degraded, they were suited to the lowest menial 
service of the country ; and, in this respect, the Hebrews 
were honored and privileged with the more reputable 
grades of service, even Avhen they were compelled, 
through poverty, to sell their services to such as were 
able to purchase them. 

Third. God encouraged the settlement of strangers 
among the Hebrews, by the protective statutes and grants 



158 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

of advantageous privileges. Among otliers we name the 
following : 

The stranger was privileged to be a partaker of the 
covenant blessings of the Hebrews ; and these blessings 
were incompatible with a state of degradation such as 
slavery induces. "Ye stand this day all of you before 
the Lord your God — your little ones, your wives, and 
thy stranger that is within thy camp, from the hewer of 
thy wood to the drawer of thy water : that thou shouldest 
enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his 
oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this 
day." (Deuteronomy xxix, 10—13.) 

It w^as the privilege of the stranger to be incorporated 
into the Jewish nation, when circumcised, and be as one 
born in the land. '* But every man's servant that is 
bought with money, when thou hast circumcised him, 
then shall he eat thereof. And when a stranger shall 
sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the Lord, 
let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come 
near and keep it ; and he shall be as one that is born in 
the land : for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. 
One law shall be to him that is home-born, and unto the 
stranger that sojourneth among you." (Exodus xii, 44, 
48, 49.) 

The circumcised stranger, equally with the Hebrew, 
partook of the passover, and one law governed both, so 
as to place them on an equal footing as to covenant rela- 
tions. (Exodus xii, 49 ; Numbers ix, 14.) 

The strangers were protected equally with others by the 
laws, while there were some laws enacted for their pecul- 
iar benefit. "Ye shall have one manner of laws, as well 
for the stranger as for one of your own country : for I | 
am the Lord your God." Leviticus xxiv, 22. No dis- 
tinctions are made to favor the master at the expense of 
the servant ; for the law allowed no respect of persons. 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 159 

His testimony was as good as his master's. The Mosaic 
laAvs regarded the brotherhood of man. 

The stranger in judgment was protected equally with 
others. " Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the 
stranger, nor of the fatherless ; nor take a widow's rai- 
ment to pledge." Deuteronomy xxiv, 17. " Cursed be 
he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, father- 
less, and widow." Deuteronomy xxvii, 20. 

The same law applied to the stranger and Hebrew in 
regard to sins of ignorance. (Numbers xv, 29.) 

The privileges of the sabbatic year belonged to the 
stranger as well as others. " And the Sabbath of the 
land shall be meat for you ; for thee, and for thy servant, 
and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy 
stranger that sojourneth with thee." Leviticus xxv, 6. 

The stranger, equally with the Levite, the fatherless, 
and the widow, partook of the jubilee provisions, arising 
from tithes. (Deuteronomy xiv, 29 ; xxvi, 12.) 

To secure the stranger from slavery there was an ex- 
press law against oppressing him. *'Thou shalt neither 
vex a stranger nor oppress him ; for ye were strangers 
in the land of Egypt." Exodus xxii, 21. ''But the 
stranger that dwelleth with you shall be imto you as one 
born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself ; for 
ye were strangers in the land of Egypt : I am the Lord 
thy God." Leviticus xix, 34. ''Love ye therefore the 
stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." 
Deuteronomy x, 19. The stranger was neither to be 
vexed nor oppressed, but loved as one born among them. 
And though some of them were servants till the year 
of jubilee, this treatment shows that they were not con- 
sidered as slaves, though they were servants ; and serv- 
ants, too, in the menial rank of servants. 

The poor man, whether stranger or Hebrew, was to be 
relieved with equal regard. " And if thy brother be waxen 



160 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

poor, and fallen in decay witli thee ; then thou shalt 
relieve him ; yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner : 
that he may live with thee." Leviticus xxv, 35. 

The stranger had the benefit of the fugitive law. 
(Deuteronomy xxii, 15, 16.) 

The hired servant, whether a Hebrew or a stranger, 
was to be paid his wages. "Thou shalt not oppress an 
hired servant that is poor and needy, w4iether he be of 
thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land 
within thy gates : at his day thou shalt give him his hire, 
neither shall the sun go down upon it ; for he is poor, and 
setteth his heart upon it : lest he cry against thee unto 
the Lord, and it be sin unto thee." Deuteronomy xxiv, 
14, 15. 

The stranger, or sojourner, could flee to the city of 
refuge. (Numbers xxxv, 15.) 

The stranger shared, with the fatherless and widow, 
the gleanings of the harvest-fields. (Deuteronomy xxiv, 
19, 21.) 

Those were cursed who perverted the judgment of the 
stranger, the fatherless, or widow. (Deuteronomy xxvii, 
19.) 

The stranger was present at reading the law, in the 
year of release, and was considered as having a right and 
interest in the privileges of the country. (Deuteronomy 
xxi, 12.) 

According to the foregoing collection of statutes, from 
the Mosaic code, respecting the reception, treatment, and 
privileges of strangers, it is manifest that they give no 
encouragement to the institution of slavery, but they are 
at variance wath it. The stranger was a welcome can- 
didate for covenant relations with the Hebrews. He 
might be naturalized by circumcision, and then partake 
of the j)assover, in common with the Hebrews, so as to 
become one of their nation. He was protected equally 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 161 

with others, in civil rights, under one and the same prin- 
ciples and forms of law. When poor, he was to share 
with the widow and the fatherless. He must not be vexed 
nor oppressed, but loved and dealt with as one born in 
the land. He enjoyed the benefit of the fugitive law. 
He could flee to the city of refuge. And the Hebrews 
were instructed constantly to treat the stranger with kind- 
ness, under the consideration that they themselves were 
strangers in Egypt. And, though some of these precepts 
are honored by many benevolent slaveholders, yet the 
slave system and the slave laws are in opposition to these 
statutes, and can never be reconciled with them. 

Fourth. The religious duties enjoined upon the Gen- 
tile servants, show they were bought with their own con- 
sent, and were not reduced to a state of slavery. Willing 
services could not be expected of persons bought against 
their will, and held in perpetual slavery. The stranger 
was called upon to receive circumcision, the token of the 
covenant, in which he avowed the Lord to be his God 
forever — Exodus xii, 48, 49 — and this covenant was 
occasionally renewed — Deuteronomy xix, 10-15 — to eat 
the passover and unleavened bread seven days. (Exodus 
xii, 44.) The stranger was bound to attend the jubilee 
feasts with i-ejoicing. (Deuteronomy xii, 10—12.) He 
was bound to receive religious instruction. (Deuteronomy 
xxxi, 10-13 ; Joshua viii, 33-35.) He was required to 
offer sacrifices ; to appear three times in the year before 
the Lord, and none were to appear empty. (Exodus 
xxiii, 14-17 ; Deuteronomy xvi, 11, 14, 16, 17 ; Numbers 
ix, 13.) Such duties could not be performed in con- 
sistency with slave laws. On this point the testimony 
of Maimonides is of value, and is a just interpretation 
of the Mosaic code on the subject : 

'* Whether a servant be born in the house of an Israel- 
ite, or whether he be purchased from the heathen, the 

14 



162 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

master is to bring them both into the covenant. But be 
that is born in tbe house is to be entered upon the eighth 
day ; and he that is bought with money on the day in 
which the master receives him, unless the slave be unwill- 
ing. For if the master receives a grown slave, and he 
being unwilling, his master is to bear with him — to seek 
to win him over by instruction, and by love and kind- 
ness, for one year ; after which, should he refuse so long, 
it is forbidden to keep him longer than the twelve months, 
and the master must send him back to the strangers, 
whence he came; for the God of Jacob will not accept 
any other than the worship of a willing heart." 

Fifth. The fact that some strangers were called bond- 
men, and others servants, is quoted to prove that the 
former were slaves. The Hebrew word abed affords 
ground for no such distinction, as it means a laborer, or 
one who does work for, or renders any sort of service to 
another. Indeed, there is no word in the Hebrew lan- 
guage that corresponds to our word slave — to the Latin 
mancipinm, or the Greek amdra'podon, a slave. A peri- 
phrasis is required in this venerable language to denote 
a slave, such as Egyptian bondage, oppression, theft, 
robbery, or hard usage. In the Hebrew, in reference to 
the foreign servants, there is no word nor expression 
which points out slavery to be the condition of these hired 
servants. In the statute, then, in Leviticus xxv, 44-46, 
in the place of bondmen, it should be servants ; and in 
the place of bondmaids, maid-servants ; or the terms 
bondmen and bondmaids may be used in a good, and 
even its proper sense, to mean those servants who were 
bound by contract to serve a term of years, just as apjDren- 
tices are bound, or the Hebrew servant was bomid, by 
contract, to serve out his term of years. The name, bond- 
man, or bondmaid, properly, no more means a slave, 
than apprentice, the word minor, or hired servant does. 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 163 

Sixth. The Israelites, in procuring servants of the 
heathen, were required to buy them ; from which it is 
argued that the servants were property, and, therefore, 
slaves. This inference is based on the assumed principle, 
that whatever costs money is money or property. The 
children of Israel were required to hicy their first-born 
from the obligation of the priesthood. (Numbers xviii, 
15, 16; Exodus xiii, 13; xxxiv, 20.) The word to buy 
is still used to describe this transaction. They were 
bought as really as were the servants. The Israelites were 
required to pay money for their own souls. Bible saints, 
as Jacob, Boaz, David, etc., bought their wives ; yet these 
wives were not the less wives, and surelv thev were not 
slaves. 

The word buy, like other words, is governed by the 
usus loqiiendi. Eve said, **I have gotten [bought] a man 
of the Lord." She named him Cain; that is, acquisi- 
tion, j)urchase. *'He that heareth reproof getteth [buy- 
eth] understanding." Proverbs xv, 32. "We, after our 
ability, have redeemed [bought] our brethren that were 
sold to the heathen." Nehemiah v, 8. Here bought 
means, not to bring into servitude, but to take out of it. 

It is not long since European servants, or laborers, 
were bought in America ; but these were not slaves. But 
we have said enough on this here, especially as we have 
noticed it in our chapter on patriarchal service. 

In Leviticus xxv, 47, the Israelite who became the 
servant of the stranger, " sold himself unto the stranger." 
The same word, and the same form of the word, w^hich, 
in verse 47, is rendered sell himself, is, in verse 39, ren- 
dered be sold. 

Who sold the foreign servants ? If there were a theft 
committed, the civil magistrate might sell the thief for so 
long a time as his services would satisfy for the law on 
theft. This, however, would be a temporary arrangement, 



164 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

and the penalty of a crime. It does not, therefore, apply 
to the case. A father might sell his daughter for a wife, 
but not to be a slave. The law of Moses — Exodus xxi, 
16 — did not allow that one man should sell another man. 
But a man might sell himself, as we have seen. (Leviti- 
cus XXV, 47.) In this way the Jews could obtain bond- 
men of the heathen. They bought them when the poor 
heathen men or women sold themselves. Hence, this 
must have been a contract between the seller and buyer. 

The heathen and the stranger might be bought, and 
who but themselves had a right to sell ? None could buy 
those who dwelt in the land of Israel without incurring 
the penalty of death. Hence, the Hebrews could purchase 
none but those who sold themselves ; and could hold 
them to service no longer than the term specified. If 
they could buy lawfully those that were slaves, they might 
save their money by their own thefts. The fact of their 
buying slaves shows they could not lawfully make slaves 
of them, when they had power to reduce them to slavery 
without purchase ; so that the servants bought were bought 
from themselves and paid for their services. Perhaps 
parents, who were unable to maintain their children, 
might sell them for the term they had a right to their 
services ; but no man could justly sell his children for 
life. And as God did not allow a father to commit such 
a crime against natural affection, surely he would not 
allow his people to commit such wickedness. If the 
parent had no right to sell, the Hebrews had no right to 
purchase. The fact that purchase was required shows 
that the principle of justice was dominant, and that an 
equivalent was paid for the services. 

Seventh. The word forever, in the statute, is quoted to 
prove that the servants were to serve during life, and their 
posterity from generation to generation. No such idea is 
contained in the passage. It is certain that the word for- 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 165 

ever here conveys the idea of limited time, and not of 
endless duration ; because slavery must end, at least, at 
the end of the world. It must mean, therefore, here a 
limited period. The word here means always. As if it 
were said, you shall always get your permanent laborers 
successively from the strangers, or, as the original literally 
runs, ''forever, or always, shall ye serve yourselves from 
the strangers." Or the sense is, that from generation to 
generation the Hebrews might obtain a constant succes- 
sion of servants from the strangers, according to the law 
regulating this class of servants. For whenever forever 
refers to individual cases, it is limited by the jubilee. 
The word is applied to the ear-bored servant who was 
free at the jubilee. (Exodus xxi, 2-6 ; Deuteronomy xv, 
12—17.) But as these servants were free at the jubilee, 
they could not be slaves. 

Eighth. That the foreign servant was free at the jubi- 
lee we have ample proof. "And ye shall hallow the fif- 
tieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land 
to all the inhabitants thereof." Leviticus xxv, 10. This 
law must apply to the stranger. The release of the He- 
brew servant was secured by other enactments, as we 
have seen, at the end of six years, except those who chose 
to continue to the jubilee. The year of jubilee, therefore, 
could bestow no privilege to any Hebrew, but to the few 
Avho voluntarily remained in service at the close of the 
usual period of six years, or to freeholders who became 
servants. All the inhabitants of the land included these 
servants as well as others ; for the strangers are mentioned 
expressly verse 6. 

Ninth. From the use of the terms inheritance and jyo5- 
session, it is argued that the service was transmitted by 
inheritance from generation to generation. The law says, 
" Ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children 
after you to inherit them for a possession." We contend 



166 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

this refers to the individuals only for the term of service ; 
that is, to the jubilee. That the servants were not prop- 
erty is certain, because they could not be sold ; yet their 
term of service, in consequence of the price paid for it, 
was property, to be possessed and inherited by children as 
other property. But that the descendants of these serv- 
ants could not be in successive generations slaves, we 
have proved from the historical fact, as well as from the 
law of the jubilee, that no such class of servants existed 
among the Jews in subsequent ages. If the jubilee had 
not terminated this service of strangers, and if children 
followed the condition of the mother under almost all 
slave codes, the land of Judea would abound with these 
Helots, like Greece, Rome, America, and all slave coun- 
tries. In consequence of the law of the jubilee, the for- 
eign servants becoming free and incorporated into the 
Jewish population, very few servants from strangers were 
to be found. The only servants mentioned in the narra- 
tives of the evangelists, except where the words occur in 
Christ's parables, are the centurion's servant miraculously 
healed, and the servants of the high-priests' palace. 
(Matthew viii, 5-13 ; Mark xiv, 65 ; Luke xxii, 50.) 

Tenth. On a careful survey of this law — Leviticus xxv, 
44-46 — we must conclude that it gave no toleration, sanc- 
tion, or authority to slavery. The Hebrews were forbid- 
den to buy human beings from third persons in view of 
enslaving them. The strangers were to be treated with 
such regard to their well-being as to preclude slavery. 
Their attendance to religious duties, by divine command, 
was at variance with a slave system. These foreign serv- 
ants, however, were not equally privileged with Jewish 
servants, as they might be inherited by children at the 
death of their fathers ; were employed in domestic or 
menial services ; had not the right of redemption, and 
served to the jubilee. But whenever its first trumpet 



MOSAIC CODE ON SERVICE. 167 

sounded they were released. And all this is established 
by the historical fact, that no hereditary class of servants 
existed among the Jews down to the time of Christ. On 
this point, however, we shall take pains to show, from 
historical data, that we give the proper view of it. 



168 THE BIBLE AND SLAVEBY. 



CHAPTER Yl. 

MOSAIC CODE — CONSTITUTIONAL LAWS. 

II. On examining the various classes of servants, re- 
specting which the Mosaic code legislated, we find that 
not one of them could be classed imder the head of slaves. 
Still, in some of them, if not in all, we perceive several 
characteristics which go to say that some usages existed 
even among the Hebrews, and others among the sur- 
rounding nations, which, if not restrained or forbidden, 
would ultimately embody slavery in the Jewish polity. 
But the Mosaic restrictions respecting these, and the prin- 
ciples established, prevented slavery proper. For in- 
stance, the case of the ear-bored servant, who was to 
serve forever, might be a sort of specimen on which to 
graft slavery, did not the jubilee interfere. The case of 
the daughters sold for wives would readily run into the 
common surrounding heathen usage, that the child fol- 
lows- the condition of the mother, did not the Mosaic 
statute expressly provide otherwise. The man sold for 
debt would be a capital case on which to adjust a slavery 
department, and then the strangers would be readily the 
types of an imported African, had there been no jubilee. 
In the Mosaic code there are several great constitutional 
laws which completely prevent the tendency of human 
nature, the enslaving examples of strange nations, and 
the kindred honored usages of those among the Hebrews 
from running into slavery. We will now present these 
to our readers ; and though the manner of procuring 
servants among the Hebrews, and even the treatment of 



MOSAIC CODE. 169 

them, might run into a modified slavery, the great con- 
stitutional guards entirely prevent this. Hence, no slave 
could tread the Hebrew soil except for the purpose 
of knocking off forever his chains. We will now in 
order present these great constitutional laws. 

1. Because Canaan was the land to be inherited by 
promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their poster- 
ity, it was not to be a land of slavery. 

In the original grant to Abraham, after reciting that 
his name should be great, that he would be a blessing, 
and that in him all the families of the earth should be 
blessed, the Lord said, **Unto thy seed shall I give this 
land." Genesis xii, 7. This was especially renewed in 
reference to Abraham when circumcision was enjoined as 
the seal of the covenant. It is stated in the promise, 
** And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, 
the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of 
Canaan, for an everlasting possession ; and I will be 
their God." Genesis xvii, 8. The token of the cov- 
enant was circumcision. This comprehended every male 
child — he that was born in the house, or bought with 
money of any stranger which Avas not of the seed of 
Israel. Hence, every Hebrew was to be free, and every 
stranger who became a proselyte was to be treated as a 
Hebrew, being, like the Hebrew, exempt from usury, 
whereas other strangers were to be -charged usury or 
interest. 

In the fulfillment of this promise to strangers and He- 
brews, we have the following regulation: "And if thy 
brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; 
then thou shalt relieve him ; yea, though he be a stranger, 
or a sojourner ; that he may live with thee. Take thou 
no usury of him, or increase ; but fear thy God ; that thy 
brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy 

monev upon usurv, nor lend him thv victuals for increase. 

15 



170 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

I am tlie Lord your God, which brought you forth out of 
the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and 
to be your God." Leviticus xxv, 35-38. The poor, and 
these only — except criminals — were liable to become serv- 
ants, or bond-servants. All, whether strangers or others, 
M'"ere to be relieved so as to be saved even from bond- 
service, in consequence of poverty. But if this did not 
meet all cases, then the other regulations wouhl prevent 
slavery, as the limited periods of service, the right of re- 
demption, and the jubilee. Thus the land devoted to the 
descendants of Abraham should never be the seat of 
slavery, either to the Hebrew, or to any stranger who 
dwelt among them. 

2. Slavery is prohibited to the Hebrews in those decla- 
rations which forbid them to allow of any such bondage 
in Canaan as existed in Egypt. '' For they are my serv- 
ants which I brought forth out of the laud of Egypt ; 
they shall not be sold as bondmen," or with the sale of 
bondmen. "Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor; 
but shalt fear thy God. For unto me the children of 
Israel are servants ; they are my servants whom I brought 
forth out of the land of Egypt : I am the Lord your 
God." Leviticus xxv, 42, 43, 55. And as strangers 
could ally themselves to the Israelites by receiving their 
religion, then it is clear all the inhabitants were to be 
saved from such bondage as the Egyptian, or from any 
form of slavery. And this is repeated in Deuteronomy. 
** And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in 
the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee : 
therefore I command thee this thing to-day." Deuteron- 
omy XV, 15. It would be strange, indeed, that the Al- 
mighty would send the plagues of Egypt on account of 
slavery, and then permit or establish the same, or some- 
thing as bad, or worse, in Canaan. 

3. The essential acts of enslavement of anv human 



MOSAIC CODE. 171 

being, sucli as stealing a man, selling the stolen man, or 
retaining tlie stolen man, is ex|)ressly prohibited in the 
Mosaic code on pain of death. 

The fundamental law in Exodus, and the somewhat 
exegetical one in Deuteronomy, reads thus: ''And he 
that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in 
his hand, he shall surely be put to death." Exodus xxi, 
16. "If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of 
the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, 
or selleth him ; then that thief shall die ; and thou shalt 
put evil away from among you." Deuteronomy xxiv, 7. 
In the first passage either to steal any man, to sell a man, 
or to have in custody a stolen man, is expressly forbidden 
in this fundamental law of God. The punishment for 
the crime is capital, or death. It ranks with smiting or 
reviling a parent. Whether the act of theft is done se- 
cretly, as in some cases, or by violence, as in other; 
whether by law, or assault and battery, as the act in refer- 
ence to the sufferer is to deprive him of liberty, the dearest 
gift of God to man, the criminality is the same. In the 
passage in Deuteronomy the explanation is remarkably 
significant. The stealing is that of a brother, like the 
stealing of Joseph. The man was converted into an arti- 
cle of merchandise, as if he were a horse, or any thing 
else, and a mere sale is only a part of the mercantile trans- 
action. Death was the penalty, and unless the culprit 
were put to death the evil was not put away. This fun- 
damental law in teims prohibited slavery to the Jews, 
whether in reference to Hebrews or to foreigners. If the 
stolen man was found in the hand of his captor, the man 
was, of course, set at liberty, and his captor was j)^^t to 
death. If all the retainers of stolen men in our land 
were put to death, or, in other words, were this law in 
vogue -iimong men, as it always must be in the sight of 
God, our handful of slaveholders Avould be all extermina- 



172 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

ted, while the three and a half millions of slaves would 
be set at liberty. God's laws, according to which he will 
judge the world in the last day, would make sad work 
with many human laws of most countries. 

4. There is not only an entire absence of any slave 
code, or body of slave regulations, in the Mosaic law, or 
in any jDart of the Old Testament, but, on the contrary, 
the direct reverse of all this. The omission and antago- 
nism are unaccountable on the hypothesis of slavery 
among the Hebrews. Every slave nation has adopted 
two distinct codes — one for its free inhabitants, and an- 
other for slaves ; the latter being always barbarous and 
cruel. According to Stroud more than seventy acts, pun- 
ishable with death when committed by slaA-es, are not 
either punished at all, or else in a slight degree, when 
committed by freemen. The omission of this by Moses 
is accounted for only on the supposition that slavery was 
not authorized by his law. Had God authorized sla"#9ry 
by that law, he certainly would have enacted a slave code 
to support it. 

5. But this great code was formed to prevent every sort 
of oppression. *'Ye shall not oppress one another;" 
**Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou 
shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God;" 
" Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor ; but shalt fear 
thy God." Leviticus xxv, 14, IT, 43. Thus mutual 
oppression, as well as oppression of every sort, was for- 
bidden. And as slavery is oppressive, though all oppres- 
sion is not slavery, therefore slavery is forbidden. (See 
Genesis vi, 11 ; Exodus iii, 9 ; xii, 29 ; xiv, 28. See 
particularly Job xxvii, 13 ; Isaiah Iviii, 6, 7 ; Ezekiel 
xviii, 10—13 ; xxii, 29, 31 ; Amos iv, 1 ; viii, 4-8 ; Zecli- 
ariah vii, 9, 14.) More ancient nations were destroyed on 
account of this sin than for any other. The Israelites 
were forbidden under heavy penalties to oppress strangers 



MOSAIC CODE. 173 

or foreigners. (Exodus xxii, 21; Leviticus xix, 33, 34; 
XXV, 35 ; Deuteronomy i, 16 ; x, 18, 19 ; xxiv, 14, 
15,17.) 

6. The fiftli, seventh, eighth, and tenth commandments 
directly condemn the system of slavery ; and the other 
commandments condemn it indirectly. 

The fifth commandment teaches, " Honor thy father 
and mother." It teaches the duties of parents to chil- 
dren, and the duties of children to parents. It is the 
duty of parents to instruct their cliildren in the principles 
of knowledge ; protect them, provide for them, and pre- 
pare them for the duties of life. They are required to in- 
struct them in the principles of religion — discipline them 
in its practice and precepts, and leave them a good exam- 
ple. On the other hand, children are bound to reverence 
and love their parents — obey them in all things in the 
Lord — provide for them in sickness, poverty, and old 
age — receive their good instructions, and imitate their 
good example. Slavery jjays no regard to the reciprocal 
duties of parents and children. It transfers to the mas- 
ter the authority of parents over their children, and the 
right obedience of children to their parents. Thus the 
authority of the master was above the moral law, and 
especially above the fifth commandment. Slavery goes 
beyond the farthest extent of the civil power ; for the 
proper civil power claims no authority over the private 
rights and duties of citizens. Hence, as slavery does 
thus interfere, it is condemned by the commandment, 
*' Children, obey your parents." 

The seventh commandment, "Thou shalt not commit 
adultery," destroys slavery. God intended marriage, 
and enjoined it as much on servants as on others, as 
we have seen in considering the various classes of serv- 
ants. Slavery does not regard marriage, but entirely 
annuls it, as all the slave laws declare. Now, as slavery 



174 THE BIBLE A KB SLAVERY. 

either forbids or annuls marriage, and God enjoined it 
on all servants in Judea as well as on others, therefore, 
the service concerning which Moses legislated was not 
slavery. Slavery places the slaves entirely in the power 
of the master. Hence, every female slave is entirely in 
the power of the master — his sons — his overseer — his 
driver, or of any white man. No violence to the person 
of a slave is to be considered a rape. Hence the process 
of amalgamation in the south, and the high market value 
of handsome white slaves. The seventh commandment 
forbids slavery. 

The eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not steal," 
forbids slavery. " Theft is an unjust taking or keeping 
to ourselves what is justly another man's." Slavehold- 
ers are called, by St. Paul, man-stealers, or, in other words, 
the stealers J venders, or holders of men as slaves. (1 Tim- 
othy i, 9, 10.) iVnd these are reckoned by him as 
among the most flagrant transgressors of the moral law. 
As slavery is theft, it is forbidden by this commandment. 

Slavery is condemned b}'' the tenth commandment, 
which says, "Thou shalt not covet." By the law of 
God every man owns himself. The slaveholder j&rst 
covets, then steals, secretly, violently, or by law, the man, 
and makes him a slave. The act or acts are breaches of 
the tenth commandment. 

As the apologists for slavery have no solid grounds, on 
the score of justice, or the law of God, to maintain their 
cause, they have recourse to the perversion of Scripture to 
prove their point. For this purpose the fourth and tenth 
commandments are chosen. In the fourth commandment 
it is said, respecting the Sabbath, " In it thou shalt not 
do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy 
man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor 
thy stranger that is within thy gates." The tenth com- 
mandment says, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 



MOSAIC CODE. 175 

house, tliou shalt not covet tliy neighbor's wife, nor his 
man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his 
ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's." 

On the foregoing we remark : 

(1.) Of the various classes of servants among the 
Hebrews, none of them were slaves, but either hired serv- 
ants, servants for six years, or till the jubilee. And the 
right of property or possession in them, as expressed by 
THY man-servant, thy maid- servant, only referred to tlie 
right of the master to the service of the servant during 
that period. 

(2.) The command, "Thou shalt not covet," does 
not prove that the servants were held as property, any 
more than that a wife, son, or daiighter was property in 
common with cattle, houses, etc. Men are possessed as 
servants, without being possessed as property. Children 
and wives are possessed as children and wives, but not as 
chattels. They may be claimed by the title of children 
and wives, but not by the title of chattels. 

(3.) The command says, "Thou shalt not covet any 
thing that is thy neighbor's ;" that is, any thing that 
justly belongs to him. To every man belongs, by the law 
of nature, and the law of God, and by all just human 
laws, personal liberty, personal security, and the piirsidt of 
happiness. These must not be coveted by any person, 
because these are the property of another. But the con- 
tract for services, by which one person voluntarily binds 
himself to another, becomes the just right of the other, 
and should not be coveted or seized by another. 

(4.) These servants could not be slaves, because the 
fifth, seventh, and eighth commandments condemn slavery, 
in condemning the acts which originate or continue it. 
To enslave is to steal a man, or to use him as stolen. 
And then the commandments on obedience to parents, 
and on marriage, clearly condemn the system. Those, 



176 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

therefore, mentioned as servcants, in the fourth and tenth 
commandments, could not be slaves ; seeing the fifth, 
seventh, eighth, and the same tenth commandment con- 
demn slavery. The conclusion is, that the decalogue con- 
demns, prohibits, and makes penal the entire system of 
slavery. 

7. The resjJect of persons forbidden in the law of 
Moses, and in other portions of Scripture, is at variance 
with a state of slavery. "Ye shall do no unrighteousness 
in judgment : thou shalt not respect the person of the 
poor, nor honor the j)erson of the mighty ; but in right- 
eousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor." Leviticus xix, 
15. *' Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge 
righteously between every man and his brother, and the 
stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons 
in judgment : but ye shall hear the small as well as the 
great ; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man : for the 
judgment is God's." Deuteronomy i, 16, 17. "For the 
Lord your God is a God of gods, and Lord of lords, a 
great God, a mighty and a terrible, which regardeth not 
persons, nor taketh reward." Deuteronomy x, 17. In 
other parts of the Old Testament the same instructions 
are given. "It is not good to accept the person of the 
wicked, to overthrow the righteous in judgment." Prov- 
erbs xviii, 5. "It is not good to have respect to per- 
sons." Proverbs xxiv, 23. " To have respect of persons 
is not good : for for a piece of bread that man will 
transgress." Proverbs xxviii, 21. The justness of the 
cause was to be decided without regard to rich or poor. 
The claims of slavery are founded on respect of persons — 
on injustice — on gain — and are at variance with the 
above texts and the righteous jurisprudence of the Bible. 

8. The legal rights and privileges secured to servants 
among the Hebrews, both in the Mosaic code and other 
places of the Bible, excluded the very idea of slavery 



MOSAIC CODE. 177 

from the nation. According to slave laws, the slaves 
have no rights, because they are property. Among the 
Hebrews all classes of servants were circumcised. They 
had a right of covenant with God. They had a right to 
the joassover and other feasts. They enjoyed the Sabbath 
and its privileges. They received remuneration and good 
treatment. They were instructed in religion. They had 
a right to hold property, and have servants of their own. 
They were governed by equal laws. They might be heirs 
to their masters. They exercised the highest offices. If 
their masters abused them to the extent of mayhem, they 
were set free. They might leave their master's house for 
ill usage. Their contract of service ended at the year of 
release, or at the jubilee. They married into their mas- 
ter's families. The children and heirs of masters seem 
to have no greater privileges than the servants. The 
legal exercise of these rights would destroy slavery. And 
surely God would not establish an institution in a code 
of laws, which he would destroy by antagonistic laws, in 
the same code. Something the very opposite of this, 
hoAvever, is done by all slave codes. The Roman law 
declared that all men were born free, and that liberty 
w\as the right of every man. It also declared that slav- 
ery was contrary to natural law and the divine law. 
But they gave the dominance to unjust human laws, so as 
to annul the divine law. In the United States it is de- 
clared that all men are created free and equal — copying 
the Roman law, as well as the divine. Yet the slave 
laws, though merely statutory, counteract and annul the 
Declaration of Independence — the declaration of rights — 
the Constitution of the United States — the decisions of 
judges, and the principles of the decalogue. But God's 
laws do not conflict ; and, hence, there is no law of his 
which authorizes any person to steal a man — to compel 
him to serve him without wages and without a contract — > 



178 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

to part liusbands and wives — to sell cliildreu from their 
parents — to hunt men with dogs and guns, who are flee- 
ing for liberty. It is for our free America to do this. 

9. There is no word in the Hebrew language corre- 
sponding in meaning with our English, and the ancient 
and modern word slave, slaveholder, slavery, etc. This 
certainly could, not have happened, had the practice of 
human slavery existed among the ancient Israelites, either 
with or without the Mosaic law. No such word was 
formed during the use of the Hebrew language, down to 
the time of our Lord. Never did an important public 
institution, custom, or practice, exist in any country in 
the world, without a distinct and specific name given to 
it, in the language of the country. Accordingly, the 
ancient Greeks and Eomans, the English, French, and 
Spaniards, have distinct names for slave, slavery, and 
slaveholders. While the Latins had servus, a servant, 
for any sort of a servant, the word mancipium was the 
proper name of a slave. The Greeks used the word 
doulos to signify a servant of any sort ; but andrapodorif 
from aner, a man, and 'pous, a foot, a downtrodden man^ 
is the proper name for slave ; while andrupodlstes, from 
the preceding, and istemi, to stand, means the slaveholder^ 
who stands with his feet on the prostrate man. Such dis- 
tinctions run through all languages, as far as we can 
learn, where slavery has existed. 

The Hebrew word ahed, a laborer, husbandman, servant, 
is derived from abad, to labor, cidtivate, to labor for an- 
other, to be tributary. So it is said there was not a man 
to till, or cultivate, the ground. The word is used as a 
noun in the sense of husbandman, laborer, servant. It 
retains this meaning in composition in proper names, as 
Obededom, the servant of Edom ; Obadiah, the servant of 
Jehovah; Abednego, the servant of light ; Ebedmelech, the 
servant of the king. How is it possible that the Hebrew 



MOSAIC CODE. 179 

language has no word for slave as distinguished from 
servant, if slavery had existed from the earliest patri- 
archal times among the people of God, especially as this 
was their language from Adam to Christ ? 

10. Another fundamental law in regard to Hebrew 
service was, that the servant could never be sold. A 
man, in certain circumstances, could he bought ; but when 
bought he could not be sold. Permission is given in the 
law of Moses to bi/y a servant, but none is given to sell 
him again ; and because no such permission is given, it 
is full proof that it was not designed. The Mosaic code 
gives no authority to take servants in i^ayment for debts ; 
they were not given as pledges, nor given as presents. 
This is positive as to the Hebrew servant, and its princi- 
ple must apply to all. "They shall not be sold as bond- 
men." Leviticus xxv, 42. Before a slave came into the 
hand of an Israelite he mioht have been bouorht and sold 
many times ; but in the hand of the Hebrews he could 
not be an article of merchandise. Many good men have 
bought slaves; but they would not for the world sell one. 

As servants were not subject to the ordinary uses of 
property, they were not property, and could not be sold 
as property. The law forbade to steal, buy, sell, or make 
merchandise of a man. (Exodus xxi, 16 ; Deuteronomy 
xxiv, 7.) No Israelite could buy a stolen man. In the 
case where damages were paid the master^ as when an ox 
pushed the servant — Exodus xxi, 32 — there is no recog- 
nition of the master's property in the servant. It only 
refers to his services. The master had paid a full j^rice 
for his services. Hence, if the person of the servant 
were injured, the loss fell on the master. And if the 
servant were killed, the master was bound to support the 
family of the servant. 

The servant in the family of an Israelite was one of 
his oivn accord. For to abjure idolatry; to enter into 



180 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

covenant with God ; to be circumcised in token of it ; to 
observe the Sabbath, the passover, the pentecost, and the 
feast of tabernacles ; and to receive instruction in the 
moral and ceremonial law, were all voluntary acts. 

As the servants of the Jews became such voluntarily , 
they also received wages, pay, or remuneration. " Woe 
unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and 
his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor's serv- 
ices WITHOUT wages, and giveth him not for his work." 
Jeremiah xxii, 13. God here testifies that to use the 
service of others without wages is unrighteousness , and he 
pronounces a woe on the doer of the wrong. To buy a 
person against his will of a third person ; to reduce him 
and his jDosterity to perpetual slavery ; to give him barely 
food, clothing, and lodging only ; and all this at the 
pleasure of the master, can have no pretenses to wages or 
remuneration. The answer of Rev. R. J. Breckinridge 
to such a substitute for wages is in point. ** Out upon 
such folly! The man who can not see that involuntary 
domestic slavery, as it exists among us, is founded on the 
principle of taking by force that which is another's, has 
simply no moral sense.'' 

11. The law of Moses, which forbade to restore run- 
away servants or slaves to their masters, proves that no 
slavery proper could exist in Judea. The law reads thus : 
** Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which 
is escaped from his master unto thee : he shall dwell with 
thee, even among you in that place which he shall choose 
in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best : thou shalt 
not oppress him." Deuteronomy xxiii. On this law we 
remark as follows : 

(1.) The servant, we maintain, was not a Hebrew serv- 
ant, because such servants were such by contract. They 
could not be slaves, and were protected equally with oth- 
ers, as well as paid beforehand their wages, if they were 



MOSAIC CODE. 181 

servants bought with money from themselves. It wouhl 
have been unjust to have harbored such runaways. It is, 
moreover, absurd that God would make so many laws 
respecting servants *'born in the house or bought with 
money of any stranger," and who had received their 
wages or support in advance, or as they had need, and 
then introduce a law to encourage them to run away, and 
thus refuse to meet their contracts or agreement, honora- 
bly entered into. To prove further that Hebrew servants, 
or the servants of Hebrews, were not thus protected, we 
adduce the case of the servant that might be punished, 
whose services, though not the person, were ''the money 
of the master." Exodus xxi, 20, 21. The servants of 
Shimei, who escaped to the king of Gath, were brought 
back by their master. (1 Kings ii, 39, 40.) A servant 
in Judea, who was not, and never could be a slave, had 
no more right to run away than any other person, as he 
had the same means of redress. 

(2.) The fugitive, as Hanligant says, was a foreign 
servant or slave, not of the Jewish nation. The pagan 
master was often cruel. He might beat, maim, or kill 
his slave. The slaves were often selected as sacrifices to 
idols. The words, ''escaped from his master," show that 
he was in jeopardy and saved himself by flight. The 
design of the law seems to be to provide an asylum for 
all oppressed foreign slaves who would flee to Judea for 
liberty, on whose territory there were no slaves, and where 
laws of equity governed. 

(3.) It is evident this law is addressed to the magis- 
trates, and not to individuals, or the common people. 
The character of the fugitive — the causes of his flight — 
the granting of the rights of citizens, implied in the 
phrase, " in one of thy gates," all came properly under 
the power of the civil magistrate ; and no magistrate 
could, on any account, deliver up a runaway slave. The 



182 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

moment his foot touched Hebrew soil the magistrate be- 
came his protector, so that he should not be taken back 
to his master, or oppressed, or even restrained by the 
Hebrews. He was to dwell unmolested wherever he 
chose. 

(4.) Hence, Palestine became an asylum for freedom. 
The foreigner who voluntarily came there was a freeman, 
and no longer a slave. No power could oppress him, nor 
compel him to return to slavery, nor force him to become 
even the servant, much less the slave, of any man in 
his new residence, unless he made a voluntary contract 
himself to become the servant of some one, and that con- 
tract could be made only to the jubilee. The whole civil 
power of Judea was engaged to protect the stranger, who 
was now free and no longer a slave. 

(5.) Heathen service or slavery was compulsory, hav- 
ing no regard for the rights of man, and the Jewish law 
forbade the system which compelled the poor and defense- 
less to toil for the rich and powerful. Hence, the Hebrews 
had none but voluntary servants, who sold themselves for 
a term of years ; and, therefore, justice and humanity 
forbade all Jews to countenance the claim of foreign 
slaveholders by restoring their runaways ; and they would 
not allow their soil to be polluted as a race-ground for 
seizing forcibly those who were escaping from oppression. 

(6.) Therefore, as there was no law to seize runaway 
slaves, so the law in Deuteronomy xxiii declared that no 
law could ever be made to restore a slave to his master. 
No future law could ever change this principle of the 
Jewish constitution. 

(7.) This law of Moses deeply impresses the mind 
with the evil of slavery. This law impressed this great 
truth on the public mind, that every man ought to be a 
freeman. It taught every Hebrew that it was wrong to 
subject any man as a slave. It taught the heathen world 



MOSAIC CODE. 183 

that there was one nation, at least, that regarded the voice 
of natural law, as uttered by Justinian in the Roman 
code, "All men from the beginning were born free" — 
" Omnes liberl ab initio nascehantur .' ' We quote from 
memory. 

(8.) And the Jewish nation themselves were an exam- 
ple of this. The whole nation of the Hebrews were a 
fugitive race, who iied as j^recipitately from Egypt as a 
slave does from his master. The example of the whole 
people, in the glorious exode from Egypt, was one great 
rush for freedom, under the direction of God. And as 
God is as watchful over one of his creatures as over all, 
so exevY individual, who is escaping from slavery, is as 
much under God's protection as the Israelites were in 
their escape, their flight, and their settlement in Canaan. 
Hence, the law of the fugitive is, that he should not be 
delivered to his master ; that he mav dwell where he 
pleases ; that he should not be oppressed or enslaved, but 
protected by the civil magistrate. 

(9.) Hence, the American Fugitive-Slave law is in 
direct opposition to the divine law, and can not bind the 
conscience of a Christian. It is also unconstitutional in 
reference to the Declaration of Independence, the bill of 
rights, and the Constitution of the United States. It is 
at variance with natural law. It has, therefore, no force 
to bind the conscience of any man, except so far as it 
forms a part, though an anomalous one, of a great sys- 
tem of the best laAvs in the world ; and even this is to 
have such respect shown to it as not to impair a good 
system in doing away the unsound portion of it. This 
is a nice point. 

(10.) How different the Mosaic code from our slave 
codes ! In the year 1705 a law was enacted in Virginia 
authorizing any two justices of the peace, "by procla- 
mation, to 02dlaw runaways, who might thereafter be 



184 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

killed and destroyed Ly any person whatsoever, by such 
ways and means as he might think fit, without accusation 
or impeachment of any crime for so doing." And then 
the law authorizing the hunting of men with dogs, guns, 
advertisements, in any county, is among the most scan- 
dalous, unjust, and wicked laws ever enacted by a barba- 
rous or civilized nation. 

12. The sabbatical year, as established in the Mosaic 
code, is at utter variance with a system of slavery. The 
following texts contain the principal regulations of the 
sabbatical year : ''And six years thou shalt sow thy land, 
and shalt gather in the fruits thereof : but the seventh year 
thou shalt let it rest and lie still ; that the poor of thy 
people may eat : and what they leave the beasts of the 
field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy 
vineyard, and with thy olive-yard." Exodus xxiii, 10, 
11. " Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six jeavs 
thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit 
thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest 
unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord ; thou shalt neither 
sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which grow- 
eth of its own accord of thy harvest, thou shalt not reap, 
neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed : for it is 
a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the 
land shall be meat for you ; for thee, and for thy servant, 
and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy 
stranger that sqjourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and 
for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase 
thereof be meat." Leviticus xxv, 3-7. The following 
are the regulations of the law : 

The Hebrews were neither to sow their fields nor prune 
their vines on the seventh year, that the land might enjoy 
its rest or sabbath every seventh year, as the Israelites had 
enjoyed their rest every seventh day. (Exodus xxiii, 11 ; 
Leviticus xxv, 4. ) 



MOSAIC CODE. 185 

The produce of that year, which, of course, was spon- 
taneous, was common to all, without exception, as the 
poor, the servants, the stranger, and cattle. This re- 
minded the owners of the land that they depended on 
God for their lands, and that their duty was to feel char- 
ity for the poor, for servants, and for strangers, and 
humanity to brutes. (Leviticus xxv, 6, 7 ; Exodus 
xxiii, 11.) 

This institution was intended to demonstrate a particu- 
lar providence ; for the produce of every sixth year was 
promised to be such as would support them till the har- 
vest of the ninth year. (Leviticus xxv, 20-22.) 

The sabbatic year was intended as a release from any 
debts in the way of borrowing and lending, which had 
been contracted between the Israelites. (Deuteronomy 
XV, 2.) And they were cautioned not to shut their bow- 
els of compassion on that account. (Deuteronomy xv, 
7-11.) But of a person of another nation, not a prose- 
lyte, it could be exacted. (Deuteronomy xv, 3.) 

But the most important matter that concerned the sab- 
batic, or seventh year, was, that it terminated the term of 
service of Hebrew servants. The land was to rest on the 
seventh year. So the Hebrew servants who sold them- 
selves, for wages or money, were also to enjoy this year of 
release. " Six years he shall serve : and in the seventh he 
shall go out free for nothing." Exodus xxi, 2. "And if 
thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be sold 
[sell himself] unto thee, and serve thee six years ; then 
in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee." 
Deuteronomy xv, 12. 

In the sabbatical year, at the feast of tabernacles, they 
were enjoined to read the law in the hearing of all the 
people, comprising the women, children, and the strang- 
ers, to the end that they might hear, learn, fear the Lord, 

and "observe to do all the words of this law." Deu- 

16 



186 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

teronomy xxxi, 12. In the sabbatic 3^ear, or year of 
release, we see an institution wbicli would destroy slavery 
in its stronghold. And did the Almighty approve of 
such a system, he would not annul or counteract it by the 
year of release. And this was proclaimed to all Israel as 
the standing law of the country, on reading the law in 
the sabbatic year. 

13. The law of the jubilee is thus described: "And 
thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, 
seven times seven years ; and the space of the seven sab- 
baths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. 
Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sounds 
on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of 
atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout 
all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and 
proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the in- 
habitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye 
shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall 
return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that 
fiftieth year be unto you : ye shall not sow, neither reap 
that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in 
it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubilee ; it shall be 
holy unto you : ye shall eat the increase thereof out of 
the field. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every 
man unto his possession." Leviticus xxv, 8-13. The 
jubilee year began on the first day of Tizri, answering to 
our September, and about the autumnal equinox. On 
this year no one either sowed or reaped. Each took pos- 
session of his inheritance that had been sold, mortgaged, 
or alienated. Hebrew servants, with their wives and 
children, w^ere free from all previous contracts of service, 
which could last only to the year of jubilee at the fur- 
thest. All foreign servants also enjoyed the right of the 
jubilee. 

The most natural derivation of the w^ord jubilee, is | 



MOSAIC CODE. 187 

from So"n, hohil, or hovil, the Hiphil from Sj* yaval, to 
recall, restore, bring back, because this year restored all 
slaves or bound servants to their liberty, and brousrht 
back all alienated estates to their j^rimitive owners. 
Accordingly, the Septuagint renders the word by a4)fcrt?, 
a remission. And Josephus — Antiq., b. ii, chap, x — 
says it signifies fXfr^fptar, freedom. Hence he says, 'ot 
bov'ktvovti^ sT^svOapoL a^tsvtaL — "Those rendering service 
are sent out free ;" or, as his Latin translator has it, 
Servi manur)iittuntur , slaves are manumitted. 

The jubilee was a Avonderful institution, and of great 
service to the religion, freedom, and independence of the 
Hebrews. It was calculated to prevent the rich from 
oppressing the poor, and reducing them to perpetual 
slavery, and to hinder them from getting possession of 
all the lands, by purchase, mortgage, or usurpation. It 
was further intended, that debts should not be multiplied 
too much, lest the poor should be entirely mined — that 
servants should not always continue in servitude, and 
that personal liberty and equality should be preserved, as 
far as possible. 

Some contend, that, because the law of emancipation 
is found in the tenth verse, and the law on service in 
verses 44-46, that the jubilee did not reach to the 
strangers or heathen. We might as well affirm that 
the Babylonish captivity took place after the latter-day 
glory, because it is written subsequently in the book of 
Micah iv, 1-3, 9, 10. The Hebrew who sold himself, 
or he who was sold by the magistrate, was free at the end 
of six years. The jubilee must therefore apply to all 
servants of every description. 

The jubilee was to be a universal proclamation of free- 
dom throughout the land. So the law says, "Proclaim 
liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants 
thereof." The law is not ambiguous — liberty is to be the 



188 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

boon to be bestowed. Tlie Septuagint renders the Hebrew 
^m, deror, liberty ; a^ffjn/, remission. So Luke iv, 18. 

All the inhabitants of tbe land, must certainly include 
all servants. The servants belonged to tbe households; 
and, therefore, to the regular inhabitants, whether strang- 
ers by birth or not. The Ixx use a phrase which includes 
all sojourners, Ttasv tovc xa-toixovatv avtr^v — to all who in- 
habit it. It is not worth while to dwell here respecting 
the meaning of inhabitants ; as this word can not apply 
to transitory sojourners, in the case in hand, but to the 
bought servants, who were incorporated among the Hebrew 
families, became their possession, as servants, were inher^ 
tied as such by their children, and that forever, or to the 
jubilee. Such is the plain meaning of the law of the 
jubilee, which applies to all servants of every grade, and 
proclaims liberty to all of them. If any doubts, let him 
just read the texts in a concordance under the word m- 
habitant, and he will be convinced of the truth of this 
statement. 

The following passage from Isaiah will show the light 
in which the stranger is viewed, and, therefore, the serv- 
ant who is a stranger: "The sons of the stranger, that 
join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the 
name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that 
keepeth the Sabbath from polluting It, and taketh hold 
of my covenant ; even them will I bring to my holy 
mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer : 
their burnt-offerings and sacrifices shall be accepted upon 
mine altar : for my house shall be called a house of 
prayer for all people." Isaiah Ivi, 6, 7. 

14. There is no Scriptural or other accolmt of the 
existence of a slave system among the Jews. Every 
country in which slavery existed, has exhibited a class of 
persons who were hereditary slaves. Among them the 
common maxim, the child followed the condition of the 



MOSAIC CODE. 189 

mother, j)i'evailed. The Helots among the Greeks are a 
sample. So also the Hebrews among the Egyptians. 
The case of America and other modern countries presents 
examples. No such class of slaves existed in Judea. 
Besides, had the Jews practiced slavery, even in violation 
of the Mosaic code, they would have left some historical 
tradition of the matter, such as the Greeks and Romans 
did. Josephus relates no such custom ; and, though the 
word slave occurs in the English translation, it must be 
considered a false rendering, because there is no word in 
the Hebrew language for slave. 

15. The penal sanctions delivered respecting the treat- 
ment of servants, go to show that slavery was not the 
system of servitude which the Mosaic code regulated. 
We will notice the principal cases under this head. 

(1.) The following law is given: "And if a man 
smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die 
under his hand ; he shall be surely punished. Notwith- 
standing, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be 
punished : for he is his money." Exodus xxi, 20, 21. 
This law refers to servants in general, and not to Hebrew 
servants in particular. Cruelty is here forbidden, by ap- 
pointing to that master who should beat his servant, so 
as to kill him, the punishment due to a murderer. If the 
death of the slave was not owing to the correction, the 
master was thought sufficiently punished by the loss of 
his servant's services ; for, in this respect, he was his 
money ; and in this view it was clear, that the master did 
not design to kill him. The servant being his master's 
money, is, therefore, not adduced as any proof that he 
was his master's property, but as evidence that his 
master had no design to kill him. 

How different the spirit manifested here to servants, 
to the absolute power allowed over them among the 
heathen nations, who gave the master the power to kill 



190 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

his slaves ! Plato, in his Eepublic, says, "He who kills 
his own slave, shall be acquitted ; whoso, in anger, kills 
another's, shall pay double the price of him." The 
Emperor Adrian first softened the rigor of the laws re- 
specting putting slaves to death. The Mosaic law here 
would badly suit a slave code. 

(2.) The Mosaic law decided that, if an ox killed a man, 
the ox must be killed, and his flesh must not be eaten ; 
and the owner of the ox would be quit. But if the ox 
were wont to assault persons, and the owner did not con- 
fine him, he was put to death. Yet he might, in that 
case, ransom his life, according to the decisions of the 
judges, by f>^yiiig whatever sum they laid on him. 
(Exodus xxi, 28-31.) The fine was not determined, 
in this case, as to the amount. In the case of a servant, 
however, the fine was fixed. "If the ox shall push a 
man-servant or maid-servant ; he shall give unto their 
master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be 
stoned." Verse 32. 

The la\^ is express. There is no distinction made be- 
tween a freeman and a bondman, except as to the 
amount of the fine, when that was commuted for death. 
"If an ox gore a man or a woman." Bondmen and 
bondwomen were not then excluded from the class of 
men and women ; for the law is, a man or a woman; also, 
a son or a dauglder. It applies equally to all human be- 
ings. Death is the punishment to be inflicted upon the 
owner of the ox, if, in the oj)inion of the judges, the 
same was murder, whether the person killed was bond or 
free ; the law made no difference. 

But, when the case was not pronounced murder, there 
was a difference between the freeman and the bondman. 
If there be alleviating circumstances, in both cases, a 
ransom is to be paid. In the case of the freeman this 
amount was to be decided by the judges. In the case of 



MOSAIC CODE. 191 

tlie bondman the sum was fixed at ''thirty shekels of 
silver," or from fifteen to twenty dollars. 

(3.) The following is another of the penal laws on 
service: "And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or 
the eye of his maid, that it perish ; he shall let him go 
free for his eye's sake. And if he smite out his man- 
servant's tooth, or his maid-servant's tooth ; he shall let 
him go free for his tooth's sake." Exodus xxi, 26, 27. 
The servant in this case, as in others under the Mosaic 
code, was not a slave> but a servant. As a servant he 
was to serve either till the year of release, or till the 
jubilee. The loss of his eye or tooth, exonerated him 
from the service, and he therefore kept the money by 
which he sold himself, or he canceled the obligation of 
service, whatever it was, by the loss of his eye or tooth. 
In this the service differed from slavery ; as slavery proper 
knows of no such condition of emancipation. If muti- 
lated members, scourged backs, or the like, would j)vo- 
duce freedom with us, there would not be many slaves in 
the country at this time. 

(4.) Here is another penal case. "And whosoever 
lieth carnallv with a woman that is a bondmaid be- 
frothed to a husband, and not at all redeemed, nor free- 
dom given her ; she shall be scourged : they shall not be 
put to death, because she was not free." Leviticus xix, 
20. Had she been free, the law required that she and the 
man should be put to death. (See Deuteronomy xxii, 
24.) As she was a servant, she had less control over her- 
self; but as she made no resistance, she was to be 
scourged, and the man was required to confess his guilt 
and make an offering. But the girl was no slave, because 
she was " betrothed to a husband ;" and, therefore, might 
soon have a husband ; but a slave could not be betrothed, 
married, or have a husband ; therefore, she could not be a 
slave. She was punished, however, with correction. 



192 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

The man was censured, and was required publicly to atone 
for his sin. Such crimes as this pass entirely unnoticed 
by our slave laws. In all such acts among us, were the 
slave women to be publicly scourged, and the slaveholders 
publicly censured, and fined before an ecclesiastical tribu- 
nal, it would be a strange thing, indeed, in the annals 
of slavery. Therefore, the penal censure here adminis- 
tered does not agree with a slave system ; and, therefore, 
service among the Hebrews was not slavery. 

16. We will here sum up the great antislavery consti- 
tutional principles of the Mosaic code, so as to place 
before our readers the mere outline of it in one general 
surve}^ There was slavery in some form in all the na- 
tions which surrounded the Hebrews. From their inevi- 
table connection with these nations some of the usages of 
slavery were incorporated with the customs of the He- 
brews. These customs, unrestrained and extended, would 
lead to slavery. To preserve liberty among God's people, 
and to prevent the introduction of slavery into the model 
republic, the antislavery f)rinciples were embodied into 
the Mosaic code, not only in its very constitution, but 
into all its civil statutes, ordinances, etc., so as entirely 
to prevent the establishment of slavery in Judea. Add 
to this, the great principles of liberty in the Jewish code 
were to be a standard for Christianity, so that the Chris- 
tian Church should never be infested with a slave system. 
So Isaiah declared very clearly. (Isaiah xli, 1-4.) Our 
Lord proclaimed to the Jews this great jubilee. (Luke 
iv, 18.) Isaiah calls it proclaiming liberty to the cap- 
tives, and the opening of the prison to those that are 
bound ; to proclaim the acceptable year of our Lord and 
the day of vengeance of our God. Our Lord expresses 
it thus: "To preach or proclaim liberty to the cap- 
tives to set at LIBERTY THEM THAT ARE BRUISED Or DOWN- 
TRODDEN," as the ANDRAPODA, or slaves of the heathens. 



MOSAIC CODE. 193 

were thus trodden on by their captors and enslavers. 
With these remarks we introduce the summary of the 
antislavery constitutional laws of the Hebrew code. 

By the appointment of God Canaan was to be a free 
country, on whose soil no slave could tread and remain 
without becoming a freeman, and thus resume the exer- 
cise of his natural rights, of which, like our slaves, he 
had been feloniously and violently deprived in spite of 
justice. In this free country, it was provided that no 
such bondage as that of Egyptian bondage should ever 
be introduced. So that, in denouncing the bondage of 
Egypt, the system of slavery was condemned in the same 
sentence of prohibition. Hence, the essential elements of 
slavery were condemned as capital offenses, and the pun- 
ishment for this was death equally with murder, or beat- 
ing, or reviling a parent. (Exodus xxi, 16-; Deuteron- 
omy xxiv, 7.) Thus there is the total absence of any 
law in the Mosaic code which tolerates, sanctions, ap- 
proves, or establishes a slave system. And yet there is 
also the presence of many prohibitory laws excluding all 
the leading characteristics of slaver5^ Therefore, the 
decalogue is altogether antislavery. The fifth, seventh, 
eighth, ninth, and tenth commandments directly condemn 
it ; while the other commandments are indirectly at vari- 
ance with it. And the two great commandments, love 
to God and love to man, are subversive of the system. 
The constant command in the exercise of human rights, 
io avoid respect of persons, condemns the system that re- 
duces some to the lowest degradation ; while it makes 
despots or tyrants of others. As God made of one blood 
all men, this respect of persons, as that which distin- 
guishes the slave from the master, is clearly forbidden. 
The numerous rights and privileges — civil, religious, and 
social — can not consist with slavery. And so alien is 
the svstera to the Hebrew nation, that their language 

17 



194 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

never liad a word exactly to correspond to slave, slavery, 
enslaver. The word that most nearly approaches a proper 
designation, is that which, in its various forms, corre- 
sponds to the terms oppression, oppressive, oppressor. 
And these terms are similar to the terms in Greek, which 
are literally expressed by tramxil'mg under footy lie that is 
tram2)led on, and the trampler on men. The Hebrew serv- 
ant, or the stranger, could never be sold, though they 
could be bought. And they could be bought, not to 
enslave them, but to set them free. As there was no 
oppression allowed in Hebrew service, there was no need 
that the servant should leave his home to escape oppres- 
sion. He had the civil law on his side just as much as 
the master had, and could sue for the fulfillment of the 
contract respecting his service. But the foreign slave, 
who fled to Judea for protection, became a freed-man, 
and all Israel was bound to protect him at any cost. 
And there was the sabbatic year, which released perhaps 
two -thirds, or more, of all the Hebrew servants ; while 
the jubilee proclaimed liberty to all the inhabitants of 
the land without distinction. As to the effect of these 
two institutions on slavery, it may be gathered from ap- 
plying it to our own system. Had two -thirds of all our 
slaves been set free septennially since 1776, the year 1853 
would have been the witness of eleven seven-year re- 
leases. This would have left few slaves in our land. 
Then, had there been a jubilee in 1826, and did we look 
forward to another in 1876, our slave system would have 
been far from needing a Nebraska bill, or from calling 
for the annullment of a national compromise in favor of 
slavery. 

The foregoing synopsis or summary of the great anti- 
slavery constitutional prohibitions and regulations of the 
Mosaic code, go unequivocally to say that the system of 
service which the Mosaic code regulated and sanctioned, 



MOSAIC CODE. 105 

and which God approved, was not slavery; but a sys- 
tem of service consistent with liberty, and which w^as 
consistent with, and was the support of liberty and ec[ual 
unalienable rights. 



196 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY, 



CHAPTER VII. 

MOSAIC CODE— RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OP 

SERVANTS. 

III. Under a third division of our discussion of serv- 
ice, as regulated under the Mosaic code, we have to show 
that the rights and privileges of servants, as secured by 
this law, or that the principles of benevolence inculcated 
and the treatment of servants enjoined, proves that the 
service was not slavery. We select the following among 
the various rights of servants : 

1. No servant or stranger could remain with an Israel- 
ite without becoming a proselyte. (Genesis xvii, 9—14, 
23, 27.) Thus, according to the Mosaic law, he was 
entitled to covenant privileges. (Deuteronomy xxix, 
10-13.) Hence, all became brethren, and entitled to all 
the privileges of equal and just laws, among which were 
personal liberty, personal security, the pursuit of happi- 
ness, and the full exercise of religious privileges. 

2. If the servant desired it, he could compel the master 
to keep him after the six years' contract expired. This 
shows that the servant, as well as his master, had the 
full right to contract. (Deuteronomy xv, 12-17; Ex- 
odus xxi, 2-6.) Slavery knows no such law as this. 

3. There were various rights and privileges conferred 
on servants, which will show how unlike the service 
regulated was to our slavery. 

The servants were instructed in the principles of mo- 
rality and religion. This course of instruction commenced 
among the servants, household, or subjects of Abraham, 



MOSAIC CODE — SERVANTS. 197 

who tanght and commanded his children and his house- 
hold after him, that they should keep the way of the 
Lord, to do justice and judgment. (Genesis xviii, 19.) 
The law of the Lord was read on the sabhatic year "to 
all Israel, men, and women, and children, and the stranger 
that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that 
they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe 
to do all the words of this law." Deuteronomy xxxi, 
10-13. And the copy of the law was for all the people, 
** as well the stranger as he that was born among them." 
Joshua viii, 33. Jehoshaphat sent the Levites to teach 
the law throughout all the cities of Judah, to all the 
people. (2 Chronicles xvii, 8, 9.) 

The servants were invited guests at all the national 
and family festivals. When circumcised they partook 
of the passover. (Exodus xii, 12.) "And ye shall 
rejoice before the Lord your God, ye, and your sons, 
and your daughters, and your men-servants, and your 
maid-servants, and the Levite that is within your gates ; 
forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with 
you." Deuteronomy xii, 12; see also verse 18; and 
xvi, 10-15. 

Servants were released from their labors nearly one 
half of the year. TJae law secured for them the follow- 
ing portions of time : 

The whole of every seventh year. While the land 
rested the servant who tilled rested also ; and the prod- 
uct was to be for food for the master, and "for thy 
servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, 
and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee." (Levit- 
icus XXV, 3-6.) 

Every seventh day was also secured to the servant as 
well as to others. "In it thou shalt do no mariner of 
work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man- 
servant, nor thy maid-servant." Exodus xx, 10. 



198 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

Tlie servant could attend tlie three great national an- 
nual festivals. "Three times in a year all thy males shall 
appear before the Lord." Exodus xxiii, 17. These fes- 
tivals were the "passover, which commenced on the 
fifteenth of the first month, and lasted seven days" — 
Deuteronomy xvi, 1-8 — the Pentecost, or feast of weeks, 
began on the sixth day of the third month, and lasted 
seven days — Deuteronomy xvi, 10, 11 — the feast of tab- 
ernacles lasted eight days, commencing on the fifteenth 
day of the seventh month. - (Deuteronomy xvi, 13, 15; 
Leviticus xxiii, 34, 39.) If we include the time spent 
going to, remaining at, and returning from these festivals, 
each may occupy from two to three weeks. 

The rest of the neiv moons, it is said, occupied two 
days — Numbers x, 10 ; xxviii, 11-14 — also the feast of 
trumpets — Leviticus xxiii, 24, 25 — and on the great day 
of atonement. (Leviticus xxiii, 27.) 

Thus the Mosaic system secured to servants about one 
half their time. They were also furnished with the oppor- 
tunities of instruction. The time not spent in religious 
services might be employed by the servant himself, and, 
therefore, he could obtain much property, and even 
redeem himself, for which the law made provision. 

4. The servants were protected jpy law equal to the 
other members of the community. ** Judge righteously 
between every man and his brother, and the stranger 
that is with thee." Deuteronomy i, IG. "Ye shall have 
one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one 
of your own country : for I am the Lord your God." 
Leviticus xxiv, 22. "Ye shall have one law for him 
that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born 
among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that 
sojourneth among them." Numbers xv, 29. "Cursed 
be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger." 
Deuteronomy xxvii, 19. Thus the servants enjoyed the 



MOSAIC CODE — SERVANTS. 199 

full benefit of just and equal laws, and the execution of 
them. This can not be said of any slave system, whether 
the patriarchal, as in the case of Joseph, the Grecian, the 
Roman, or the American. The most noted distinction 
descriptive of slavery is that by Justinian, where he says, 
"In the condition of slaves there is no diversity; but 
among free persons there are many ; thus some are ingenuiy 
or freemen ; others Uberthd, or freed-men." (Institutes, 
Lib. I, Tit. 3, Sec. 5.) Such a distinction was not rec- 
ognized by flie law of Moses, as this law treated all 
alike. 

5. The Mosaic code enjoined the greatest affection and 
kindness toward servants, whether foreign or Hebrew. 
"The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you 
as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thy- 
self." Leviticus xix, 34. "The Lord your God . . . 
regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward : he doth execute 
the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth 
the stranger in giving him food and raiment. Love ye, 
therefore, the stranger." Deuteronomy x, 19. It is 
difficult to conceive how these precepts can be reconciled 
to slavery. 

6. The Hebrews were expressly warned against vexing 
or oppressing servants. " And shalt neither vex a stranger 
nor oppress him ; for ye were strangers in the land of 
Egypt." Exodus xxii, 21. "Thou shalt not oppress 
a stranger, for ye know the heart of a stranger, see- 
ing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." Exodns 
xxiii, 9. "And if a stranger sojourn with thee in 
your land, ye shall not vex him." Leviticus xix, 33. 
As they were neither to vex nor oppress strangers, they 
could not enslave them, as slavery is both a vexation 
and oppression. 

7. Relief to the poor was especially enjoined to all 
the Hebrews. " If thy brother be waxen poor, thou shalt 



200 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

relieve him : yea, thoiigli lie be a stranger, or a .sojourner; 
that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, 
or increase; but fear thy God." Leviticus xxv, 35, 36. 
**For the i^oor shall never cease out of the land: there- 
fore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thy hand 
wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in 
thy land." Deuteronomy xv, 11. The stranger, the 
fatherless, and the widow were to be relieved, ''that they 
may eat within thy gates, and be filled." Deuteronomy 
xxvi, 12. Poverty among the Hebrews wa^ i\iQ principal 
cause of service for a term of years ; in order to take 
away the very cause or necessity for this service, the 
relief of the poor was particularly enjoined. Poverty 
is not the reason for slavery among us ; its cause is a 
very different one, as all know. 

8. Servants might hold property, and were sometimes 
the heirs of their masters. Saul's servant had money of 
his own. (1 Samuel ix, 8.) Ziba, the servant of Mephi- 
bosheth, made David a present of bread, fruit, and wine. 
(2 Samuel xvi, 1.) He also had twenty servants of 
his own. (2 Samuel ix, 10.) David also divided the 
property of Saul's house between Ziba and his master. 
(2 Samuel xix, 24, 30.) Eliezer was selected before the 
birth of Isaac to be the heir of Abraham. (Genesis xv, 
2, 3.) *' Now Sheshan had no sons, but daughters. 
And Sheshan had a servant, [a^e^^,] an Egyptian, whose 
name was Jarha. And Sheshan gave his daughter to 
Jarha, his servant, to wife, and she bare him Attai." 
1 Chronicles ii, 34, 35. Solomon says, "A wise servant 
shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall 
have part of the inheritance among the brethren." Prov- 
erbs xvii, 2. Thus servants sometimes inherited with 
children. The slave law is, "Slaves have no legal rights 
of property in things real or personal ; and whatever 
property they may acquire belongs, in point of law, to 



MOSAIC CODE — SERVANTS. 201 

their masters." The Louisiana code says, " A slave is one 
who is in the power of a master. . . . He can do 
nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire any thing, but 
what must belong to his master.'* 

9. The servant among the Hebrews received wages. 
We do not say that he received daily wages as did the 
hired servant. But he received wages in some form, 
or what he himself agreed to serve for. The wages was 
either money, or maintenance for a certain term of years, 
by contract, and was as much wages as the considera- 
tion of the apprentice, the minor, or the hired servant. 
Slavery knows no such thing as wages as a part of its 
code, in any remunerative or just sense. 

10. Servants were placed upon a level with their mas- 
ters in all civil and religious rights. "As ye are, so 
shall the stranger be before the Lord. One law and 
one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that 
sojourneth with you." Numbers xv, 15, 16, 29. (See 
also Leviticus xxiv, 22; Deuteronomy i, 16, 17.) Were 
the same legal and moral principles applied to our south- 
ern masters and slaves, it would require to alter the 
constitutions of the southern states and their laws, and 
then slavery would perish under this one laiv and one 
manner. 

11. The treatment of servants at the end of the sex- 
ennial term of service does not comport with the usages 
or laws of slavery. The servant who completed his six 
years' service was liberally supplied by his master from 
the thrashing-floor, the flock, and the vintage. (Deuter- 
onomy XV, 13, 14, 17.) Not only was the servant, his 
wife, and family released from service, but they were also 
well supplied with what was necessary to commence the 
world again. This alone shows how unlike our system 
was to theirs. 

12. From the foregoing we learn that servants were 



202 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

received into covenant relation to God among the He- 
brews, whether they were Hebrews or strangers. Hence 
they possessed, on this account, various rights and privi- 
leges, religiously, socially, and civilly, which never be- 
longed to slaves in any country. They were invited 
guests at all the national festivals ; were instructed in 
morality and religion ; were protected by laws equal with 
others ; were placed on a level with others in civil and 
religious respects ; if poor, they were relieved ; they re- 
ceived wages for their services ; they could hold property ; 
they were dismissed from their term of service with noble 
gratuities. Such rights and privileges do not belong to 
a slave system ; and the enactment of them would destroy 
any system of slavery, as the history of the world fully 
shows. As examples, we adduce the service among the 
patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; the effect of the 
Mosaic code among the Hebrews ; the effect of the same 
principles under the Christian dispensation. And to cor- 
respond with these cases, v/e mention the absence of such 
rights and privileges in our slave system, and in all 
the slave systems under heaven. 

IV. Comparison of Hebrew service with American 
slaverv. 

We have seen that the Mosaic code respecting service 
was intended to root out those incipient elements among 
the Hebrews tending to slavery, to prevent the introduc- 
tion from heathen nations of any shade of slavery, to 
establish universal freedom in the land of the Hebrews, 
and thus make it the model free country for the world, 
in view of establishing the great jubilee of political and 
religious freedom throughout the earth. Let us now turn 
to the slave laws of the south, and see the plain, irrecon- 
cilable contrast between the Mosaic service and American 
slavery, and between the slave code and the code of 
Moses. 



MOSAIC CODE — SERVANTS. 203 

1. As to the origin of the two codes ; they may be 
traced to two very distinct and opposite sources. 

The Mosaic code, regulating service, had its origin in 
generous compassion to the poor. Its provisions were 
framed for their benefit. It required a kind and benevo- 
lent disposition in the rich. It elevated the poor, and so 
restrained the tendency toward slavery by la# as forever 
to prevent its establishment in the land. 

The American slave laws had their origin in avarice. 
The system they support is derived from the African 
slave-trade, and is identical with it now in evil princijiles 
and practices. The laws are formed to promote the in- 
terests of the master — to degrade the servant, as well as 
to foster cruelty in the master, and those wrong dispo- 
sitions which are at variance with the supreme law of 
laws. 

2. American slavery is hereditary and perpetual to 
the last moment of the slave's earthly existence, and to 
all his descendants, to the latest posterity. 

The service of the Hebrews was not hereditary. Per- 
haps about two-thirds were free at the end of six years. 
The greater portion of them had the right of redemption. 
The jubilee, or every fiftieth year, gave liberty to all with- 
out exception. 

3. The law of Moses required every one to love the 
stranger and the poor servant, and forbade any one to 
oppress him ; or, in other words, to make him a slave. 
The slave law views its victim as an enemv, and treats 
him as such, by bonds, imprisonment, and subjugation. 
Hence, it is contrary to the Mosaic code, which taught 
love to the servant, and the poor and needy. The service 
of the heathen, authorized by Moses, was founded on 
moral and religious principles, and did not involve in- 
justice of any kind. 

4. The Jewish service was voluntary, except where it 



204 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

was the penalty for crime. Slavery is involuntary and 
inflicted for no crime. The labor of the slave is com- 
pulsory and uncompensated, and dictated by the master. 
The master, under the Jewish economy, possessed no 
greater authority over the servant than over his children. 
' Servants might contend with their masters about their 
rights, and fo despise their cause was reckoned a heinous 
crime. (Job xxxi, 13.) Slaves can make no contracts, 
and can have no legal right to any projierty — all they 
have belongs to their masters. 

5. The labor of the servant, under the Mosaic servi- 
tude, was for value received. The servant submitted to 
this either to cancel an obligation of justice, or to pro- 
cure for himself special benefits, which, in his opinion, 
he could not so well secure by any other means. Slavery 
does not recognize the principles of justice. It does not 
concede the right to a full compensation for servile labor. 

6. According to the Mosaic code the servant was not 
property, and could not be sold or transferred from one 
master to another. The slave, being regarded as prop- 
erty, may be sold, left by will, alienated, or disposed of 
as any other property is disposed of. He may be sold 
irrespective of his being a husband, or father, or brother, 
or any other relative. In the slave-groAving states the 
principal profit of the system is, that the slave may be 
sold. Some states throw in some restrictions as to sales ; 
but these are so limited and partial, that the general mer- 
chandise in slaves continues with little restraint. 

7. Among the Hebrews the testimony of the servants 
was as valid as that of any other person. According to 
our slave system, neither a slave nor a free colored person 
can be a witness against any white or free person, in a 
court of justice, however atrocious may have been the 
crimes they have seen him commit, if such testimony 
should be for the benefit of the slave. But thev niay 



MOSAIC CODE — SEllVANTS. 205 

give testimony against a fellow-slas'^e, or a free colored 
person. 

8. The law of Moses granted a release from labor to 
the servant who had been cruelly or unreasonably pun- 
ished. (Exodus xxi, 26, 27.) An American slave may 
be punished, at his master's discretion, without the means 
of redress. The master can transfer the same despotic 
power to any other person. Thus, on the side of their 
oppressors, there is power ; but they have no comforter. 
There is also a great inequality of law and right, in our 
slave system. What is a trifling offense in the white 
man is considered highly criminal in the slave ; as the 
same offenses which cost a white man a few dollars, are 
punished in the slave with death. 

9. Servants among the Hebrews were guarded in all 
the privileges of marriage, whether it regards husband 
and wife, parents and children. In case the mother was 
not free from service at the same time with the wife, the 
children remained with her, and the master was bound to 
receive him to service again, if he chose to live with 
them. American slaves are entirely unprotected in their 
domestic relations ; so that husbands and wives, parents 
and children, may be separated at the sovereign will of 
the master. 

10. In the laws of Moses on service, the life of the 
servant was as much protected as the life of any other 
person ; and the same principles applied to both. Accord- 
ing to our slave laws, as presented by Stroud, page 35, 
*'The master may, at his discretion, inflict any species of 
punishment upon the person of his slave." The murder 
of a slave is generally punished with a pecuniary fine. 
Yet, according to statute, the deliberate murder of a slave 
is punishable with death. But, considering the general 
character of the slave laws, the master mostly can escape, 
especially when no colored person can be a witness in the 



206 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

case. The laws of some states acquit the master for kill- 
ing a slave, if it be done when inflicting moderate punish- 
ment. The law of North Carolina, of 1798, after de- 
ciding that the willful murder of the slave incurs death, 
gives the following proviso : "Provided, always, this act 
shall not extend to the person killing a slave outlawed, by 
virtue of any act of assembly of this state, or to any 
slave in the act of resistance to his lawful owner or mas- 
ter, or to any slave dying under moderate correction." 

11. The law of Moses secured to the servant a large 
portion of time. He had, like his owner, every seventh 
day, every seventh year, the whole of the national feasts, 
and the family festivals. This arrangement gave him 
about one half of his time. According to our slave 
laws, there is no portion of time allowed to the slave, 
in which he may labor for himself, read or pray. The 
Sabbath is not secured expressly for him by law, except 
in Louisiana or Mississippi. In this the Mosaic code 
differs from our slave code. The reason is, that Moses 
legislated for servants who were free ; but we legislate for 
servants who are slaves. 

12. The slave can have no property. He can not 
own laud, a horse, or any article of husbandry. If he 
receives even a grant of land, for serving as a soldier to 
defend his country, which denies him liberty, he can not 
hold it, as the master may take it as his own. But, 
according to the law of Moses, the servant might become 
possessed of property. He might purchase his freedom 
at a fair valuation. At the end of his term of service a 
liberal gratuity was conferred upon him. He also might 
become heir to his master, did his master see fit to make 
him such. 

13. The law of Moses secured to servants the means of 
religious instruction, and of religious privileges. Serv- 
ants were received into covenant with God, and enjoyed 



MOSAIC CODE — SERVANTS. 207 

religious privileges as amply as any otlier portions of the 
Hebrew people. With us the means of religious instruc- 
tion are not bestowed upon the slaves. On the contrary, 
the efforts of the charitable and humane to supply these 
wants are discountenanced by law. Indeed, in several 
states it is made criminal even to teach the slave to read. 
14. The Mosaic code made the same provision for the 
education of the servant as for any other ; and there 
was no prohibitory law to j)revent him from learning 
any more than others, as far as he had opportunity. The 
benefits of education are withheld from our slaves. And 
this is not the effect of mere custom or neglect on the 
part of the master. It is an essential part of the system, 
and is ordained by law. In Virginia it is ordained, ''that 
all meetings or assemblies of slaves, or free negroes, or 
mulattoes, mixing or associating with such slaves, at any 
meeting or any other place, etc., in the night, or at any 
school or schools for teaching them reading or writing, 
either in the day or night, under whatever j^retext, shall 
be deemed and considered an unlawful assembly." 

15. Slaves can not redeem themselves, or obtain a 
change of masters, though such a change may render 
this necessary for their personal safety. Under the Mosaic 
constitution the Icao provided a way by which this could 
be done, if the servant or his friends could do it. The 
price of redemption, too, was fixed by the statute. A 
just valuation was to be made of the services of the 
servant in proportion to the proximity to the year of 
jubilee, and the value of a hired servant's wages ; and 
the master was bound to accept that as the price of his 
release. Our slave code has no law comjDelling the mas- 
ter to sell a slave to himself or his friend, any more than 
requiring him to sell his horse or ox. A husband or 
father can not compel a master to release his wife and 
children at any price or for any consideration. In Egypt 



208 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

and Arabia, if a slave is maltreated, lie may appeal to 
the magistrate, and compel his master to sell him. 

In the Louisiana code there is a law which does allow 
of an exception, but under such restrictions as to be no 
real substitute for the Mosaic code in the case. It reads 
thus: "No master shall be compelled to sell his slave, 
but in one of two cases, to wit : first, where, being only 
coproprietor of the slave, his coproprietor demands the 
sale in order to make partition of the property ; second, 
w^here the master shall be convicted of cruel treatment 
of the slave, and the judge shall deem it proper to 
pronounce, besides the penalty established for such cases, 
that the slave shall be sold at public auction, in order to 
place him out of the reach of the power which the master 
abused." (Louisiana Code, article 192.) In Kentucky 
there is, we believe, a similar law, and perhaps in some 
other states. 

This law, however, is almost, if not altogether, a prac- 
tical nullity ; because no slave or free colored person can 
be a witness in the case ; the master must be convicted 
of cruelty, a thing very difficult, indeed ; and it is optional 
with the judge whether he shall make the decree in favor 
of the slave or not. But when, in any case, the law is 
carried into effect, it furnishes little or no relief to the 
slave, because the slave is not made free, as the servant 
was under the Jewish law. The degradation of slavery 
still remains, that the slave may be sold at public auction 
as property. And then the slave may pass into the 
hands of as cruel a master as his former owner. 

16. If a servant escaped from his master, and fled to 
the land of Israel, the law commanded every one to pro- 
tect him, and forbade every one to deliver him to his 
master. By this law, and the laws on service, the land 
of Judea became consecrated to freedom, so that no slave 
could tread its soil or breathe its free air. But the Consti- 



MOSAIC CODE — SERVANTS. 209 

tntion of the United States lias adopted an opposite law, 
at once at variance with the word of God and the other 
parts of the Constitution. The provision of the Consti- 
tution is: "No person held to service or labor in one 
state, under the law thereof, escaping into another, shall, 
in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be dis- 
charged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered 
UJ3 on claim of the party to whom such service or labor 
may be due." (Article iv, section ii, clause 3.) On this 
article in the Constitution the notorious enactment was 
passed, called the Fugitive- Slave law. The laAv of God 
provides that every man who can secure his freedom by 
escape, has a right to do so. The Constitution and laws 
of the United States decide that he has no such risfht. 
No two laws can be more at variance than the law of 
God and the Fugitive- Slave law. 

17. There is, in our slave laws, no provision made for 
general emancipation ; in most cases it is absolutely for- 
bidden ; and in the few cases in which it can take place, 
it is accompanied with unjust and degrading treatment 
of the person. In the Mosaic code the Hebrew servant 
was to be set at liberty at the close of the sixth year, in 
most cases ; at the jubilee there was a general proclama- 
tion throughout the land. Under such laws the system 
could not be perpetuated. If the laws of the Pentateuch 
had been applied to our slavery in 1776, when the Decla- 
ration of Independence was made, there would not have 
been many slaves in this country now. Had the service 
of the greater number been terminated at the end of 
every six years since 1776, this would have nearly ruined 
slavery at this time. And had there been one jubilee in 
1826, and another confidently looked for in 1876, and 
had the privilege of redemption been enjoyed, where 
could we look for slavery in 1876, after the blasts of the 

second American jubilee had died away? 

18 



210 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

18. Let us more especially consider liere the effect of 
the Mosaic laws on service upon our slave system. Were 
slavery to originate with us, as service did with the 
Jews — the masters and the servants having to make the 
contract as to the time and conditions of service — there 
would he no small obstacle to comjjleting gangs for the 
southern market. And then the refusal of wages, the 
prospective sales of near relatives, the punishments that 
awaited the disobedient, would not he very high motives 
to choose a state of slavery, because it was better than 
the condition of northern or British laborers. Add to 
this the precarious tenure of life among slaves, and the 
disability to hold property. And then when you apply 
the year of release and the jubilee to the system, it grad- 
ually, yet rapidly, vanishes away. 

19. We may close our argument here with some 
remarks upon the laws on slavery, contrasted with those 
of Moses on service. 

It is admitted here, that all these laws are not always 
enforced by individuals, whose sense of morality pre- 
vents them from practicing according to the laws. This 
is truly a strong protest against that system, the support 
of which, according to law, shocks the moral sense of 
a Christian. No such laws exist in the moral code of 
Moses, either in regard to service or any other subject. 

Yet, in very many cases, the laws, in all their harsh- 
ness and cruelty, may be executed ; and in many cases 
they are and must be j)ut in force. The plea, then, of 
relaxation can not be pleaded in favor of the law or the 
system of slavery, but in favor of the pious protest of 
enlightened minds and a good conscience. 

The laws, therefore, fairly represent the system of 
slavery. And since our slave laws are at variance with 
the Mosaic laws on service, the inference is just, that the 
service in the one case is altogether different from the 



MOSAIC CODE — SERVANTS. 211 

slavery in the other. For if the system of slavery is 
right, the laws which support it must also be right. 
And if the laws be just and good, they can not be the 
support of that which is wrong in itself. 

20. In conclusion, Ave may here refer to the leading 
points in the Mosaic code ; from which it will appear, 
that, though slavery existed in all the nations around 
Palestine, and shreds of it existed among the Hebrews 
themselves, yet the Hebrew laws prevented the establish- 
ment of slavery among their own people by necessary 
laws, and these laws would never allow the foreign slave, 
as such, a residence among them. 



212 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

WORKING OF THE MOSAIC CODE. 

1. In our second chapter, on patriarchal service, it was 
shown that the service under Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
was not slavery, nor did it sanction or tolerate a slave 
system. On the other hand, it neutralized the elements 
of slavery around and laid the platform of freedom. In 
another cha23ter it was proved, we think, that the case of 
Joseph is the proper specimen of slavery. In Egyptian 
bondage we found a system which is nearly akin to 
slavery ; which was condemned by the word of God, and 
destroyed by miraculous influence. It was also shown 
that the Mosaic code condemned the bondage of Egypt 
as well as the slavery in the case of Joseph, and such as 
existed in the heathen nations around the Israelites. Still, 
even among the HebreAvs, there were some of the usages 
of the slave system, derived from their association with 
the Egyptians and others. The code of Moses legislated 
respecting the whole subject so effectually as to prevent 
the establishment of slavery in Canaan, as well as furnish 
a model free government, regulated by just and equal 
laws, at perfect variance with oppression and wrong. 

We will now consider the ivorhing of the Mosaic system. 
What was the operation of the Mosaic laAvs in regard to 
slavery? In answer to this question, we have to reply 
that no system of slavery existed among the Jews from 
the delivery of the Mosaic code to our Lord. We find 
no class of persons among the Jews to correspond with 
our slaves, or with the Helots among the Greeks. We 



WORKING OF THE MOSAIC CODE. 213 

seek in vain, from the historical writings of the prophets, 
for the slave system. Indeed, the prophets, where refer- 
ence is had to service, denounce every thing of the nature 
of slavery as fully as Moses did. 

2. Had the Mosaic institutions contemplated slavery, 
we should certainly look that the Canaanites would be 
reduced to that condition. Yet none of them were to be 
spared. (Deuteronomy vii, 1-6.) They were an idola- 
trous, wicked people, who were beyond the reach of refor- 
mation, like the antediluvians and Sodomites, and they 
must, therefore, be cut off. The reason, too, is given ; 
namely, that they would, like all hardened sinners, lead 
the Israelites astray. They were to be destroyed as na- 
tions or bodies politic. Yet, had they forsaken their 
idolatries and become converts to the true relisrion, thev 
would be, what God required, true penitents, and proper 
objects of forgiveness. For this rule is laid down in 
Scripture and founded in reason. (Jeremiah xviii, 7, 8.) 
No permission was given to kidnap the Canaanites, or, 
when they were captured, to sell them as slaves. None 
of them were sold as slaves, nor were they attached as 
serfs or villains to the soil, nor exported to be sold in a 
foreign market. 

Two exceptions to this have been quoted. The one 
\vas the case of the Gibeonites, the other those whom Solo- 
mon made tributary. 

3. The Gibeonites were a portion of the Canaanites, 
who, by stratagem, obtained protection from Joshua. 
The history is given in Joshua, chapter ix. Through 
false pretenses they secured their lives. Joshua and the 
princes swore to spare and 2:)rotect them. They were 
then made hewers of wood and drawers of water in the 
public service of the temple. The error of Joshua and 
the princes was, that they asked not counsel of God. 
Had the Lord been consulted there is no doubt but the 



214 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

Gibeonites would have been spared by bis approbation, 
because they feared the Lord and embraced the true relig- 
ion. The manner of making the league appears to have 
been wrong. That the league itself was lawful appears, 
1. Because Joshua and the princes, on reviewing it, con- 
cluded it to be so, and spared them accordingly. 2. Be- 
cause God punished the violator of it long after. (2 
Samuel xxi, 1.) 3. Because the other nations hardened 
their hearts — Joshua xi, 19, 20 — which went to say that 
their destruction was the result of their own obstinacy 
and wickedness. All these circumstances laid together 
show that the command of God to destroy the Canaan- 
ites was not so ahsohUe as some suppose, and should be 
undei'stood as referring rather to the political existence of 
their nations than to the destruction of their lives. (See 
Deuteronomy xx, 10, 17.) 

The Gibeonites possessed four cities : Cephirah, Bee- 
rath, Kirjath Jearim, and Gibeon their capital. All 
these cities were given to Benjamin, except Kirjath Jea- 
rim, which fell to Judah. The Gibeonites embraced cor- 
dially the Jewish religion, but continued subject to the 
burdens which Joshua imposed on them, and were faith- 
ful to the Israelites. When they were cruelly treated by 
Saul, their wrong was avenged by David at the command 
of God. (2 Samuel xxi, 1, 2, 3, 4.) From this time 
they ceased to form a separate people, or were classed 
among the Xethinim, as c/iven up to the public service of 
the temple. (1 Chronicles ix, 2.) Afterward those of 
the Canaanites who wei'e subdued and had their lives 
spared were added to the Gibeonites. We see that — 
Ezra ii, 58 ; viii, 20 ; 1 Kings ix, 20, 21 — David, Solo- 
mon, and the princes of Judah gave many such to the 
Lord. These Nethinim being carried captive with Judah 
and the Levites, returned with Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Ne- 
hemiah, from the Babylonian captivity, and continued in 



WORKING OF THE MOSAIC CODE. 215 

the temple in tlie temple service under the priests and 
Levites. 

Now let us see what ground the case of the Gibeonites 
gives to support slavery among the Jews. The condition 
of the Gibeonites under the Israelites will not comport 
with a state of slavery. 

Their service was voluntary. It was their own propo- 
sition to Joshua to become servants. *' We are your serv- 
ants ; therefore now make ye a league with us." Joshua 
ix, 11. They wished to make a league or contract, and 
become the servants or subjects and allies of the Hebrews ; 
and for \ki\% jprotection they were, of course, to pay tribute 
as a consideration for the protection. 

They were not slaves, nor even domestic servants in 
the families of the Hebrews. They still resided in their 
own cities, cultivated their own fields, tended their flocks 
and herds, and exercised the functions of a distinct, though 
not fully an independent community. When attacked by 
the Ammonites they were protected by Joshua. (Joshua 
X, 6—18.) The whole transaction was a formal recogni- 
tion of the Gibeonites as a distinct people. There is no 
intimation that they served families or individuals of the 
Israelites, but only "the house of God," or the taberna- 
cle. This service was their national tribute to the Israel- 
ites for the privilege of residence and protection under 
their government. The services seem to have been per- 
formed by rotation, and each class served a few weeks at 
a time. No service was required of females. The only 
service imposed on them was the menial service of the 
temple. This service was performed by a small number 
of their males, drafted from time to time for that purpose. 
Hence, only a small part of them could be employed at 
once on ordinary occasions. Bishop Patrick thinks that 
they "came up with the priests and Levites, in their 
courses, to serve at the altar." 



216 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

There is clear evidence from the history, that the Gib- 
eonites were not reduced to slavery j)i'operly so called. 
They were not held as property. They were not bought 
and sold, nor does it appear that the servitude descended 
indefinitely to their children ; for in time they became 
incorporated with the Jews. No argument can be derived 
from this that the Hebrews designed to perpetuate the 
institution of slavery. 

4. In the days of Solomon, or about one thousand years 
before Christ, he imposed a service or tribute of labor on 
the remnants of the Canaanites who M^ere then in the 
land. "Upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bond- 
service unto this day. But of the children of Israel did 
Solomon make no bondmen ; but they were men of war, 
and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and 
rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen." 1 Kings ix, 
21, 22. The descendants of the Amorites, at this time, 
it is believed, became proselytes to the Jewish religion, 
like the Gibeonites, as they renounced idolatry. The 
command to destroy them, in consequence of incurable 
depravity, did not apply to that generation in the time of 
Solomon. These Solomon employed in menial services, 
because they seemed best fitted for such services. But the 
Hebrews were employed in more honorable pursuits, be- 
cause they were better qualified to be soldiers, overseers, 
and rulers than the descendants of the Amorites. But 
we can see no ground for slavery here. The Hebrews 
and the descendants of the Canaanites were equally bound 
to perform their respective parts of service. The Canaan- 
ites, as being less qualified, were put to the more labori- 
ous and less honorable public duties, while the Jews 
were put to the most responsible and reputable services. 
Both were bound to serve^ but in different sorts of service. 
At any rate, there are none of the elements of slavery 
here, such as making property of men ; selling them ; 



WORKING OF THE MOSAIC CODE. 217 

breaking up tlie social relations. Besides, no class of 
slaves, answering to the enslaved descendants of the Ca- 
naanites, were to be found among the Jews. Solomon 
employed both Hebrews and strangers in the public serv- 
ice of the country ; to the one he assigned the more 
honorable service, to the other the less honorable. The 
Irish and German laborers, now in this country, without 
any element of slavery leading to it, perform the less 
reputable services of the country. The native Americans 
generally fill the more reputable positions. The descend- 
ants of the Amorites were pressed into the public service, 
for the procuring of materials for building the temple, 
and were doubtless dismissed as soon as the temple was 
finished. The phrase, ''unto this day," verse 21, proves 
only that they were held till that part of the book of 
Kings was composed. 

Observe, also, 1. Till this time the descendants of the 
Amorites were not slaves ; and the bond service now 
pressed on them was only temporary. 2. Slavery was 
not then in existence. It was prohibited by the law of 
Moses. Solomon had no slaves of his own. He was, 
therefore, compelled to call upon the services of freemen, 
as a species of taxation, to perform public service for the 
country. 

5. An occurrence that happened in the year before 
Christ 893, will show the spirit of the Jewish people as 
taught by the prophet Elisha. The King of Syria had 
invaded the land of Israel with a great army. They were 
smitten with blindness at the prayer of Elisha, and de- 
livered into the hand of the King of Israel in the midst 
of the city of Samaria, and there restored to sight. 
When the King inquired of the prophet whether he 
would smite them or not, the prophet answered: "Thou 
shalt not smite them : wouldest thou smite those whom 

thou hast taken captive with thv sword and with thy 

19 



218 THE BIBLE AND SLAVEKY. 

bow ? vset bread and water before them, that they may eat 
and drink, and go to their master. And he prepared 
great provision for them : and when they had eaten and 
drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. 
So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of 
Israel." 2 Kings vi, 22, 23. The prophet here presented 
in this practical way the true spirit of the Hebrew insti- 
tutions. Had slavery had a hold in the nation, either by 
law or custom, there certainly would have been pursued a 
different course toward, the captives, as the general custom 
of heathen nations was to make slaves of those not killed 
in war. The Jews would not make slaves of strangers. 

6. A similar event occurred about the year 761 before 
Christ. Because Ahaz and the people of Judea sinned 
against God, they were delivered into the hand of the 
Syrians, and many of them were made captives. They 
were also delivered into the hand of the King of Israel, 
who slew 120,000 valiant men in one day, ''because they 
had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers." The Israel- 
ites carried away captive 200,000, and brought them to 
Samaria. But the prophet Oded j)rotested against this 
and said: "Because the Lord God of your fathers was 
wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, 
and ye have slain them in a rage that reacheth up unto 
heaven. And now ye purpose to keep under the children 
of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen 
unto you : but are there not with you, even with you, 
sins against the Lord your God ? Now hear me there- 
fore, and deliver the captives again, which ye have taken 
captive of your brethren : for the fierce wrath of the 
Lord is upon you." 2 Chronicles xxviii, 9-11. To this 
the Israelites consented at the expostulation of heads of 
certain tribes, so that they came to the following conclu- 
sion ; namely : " So the armed men left the captives and 
the spoil before the princes and all the congregation. 



WORKING OE THE MOSAIC CODE. 219 

And the men wliicli were expressed hy name rose up, and 
took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that Avere 
naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, 
and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, 
and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought 
them to Jericho, the city of palm-trees, to their brethren : 
then they returned to Samaria." Verses 14, 15. 

We can scarcely iind a parallel to this in the history 
of the wars which those nations carried on which were 
in the practice of slavery. This history settled one im- 
portant point, that the Mosaic institutions did not allow 
that any portion of the Hebrews should make slaves of 
their brethren who might be taken in war. The general 
laAv of the Avorld then was, that captives in Avar Avere to 
be enslaA-ed. This settled the question that the Mosaic 
institutions did not sanction sla\^ery. And Avhen, in any 
instance, there were any leanings to slaA'ery or oppres- 
sion among the Jews, it was at variance with the laAv of 
Moses. 

7. In the year before Christ 712, the prophet Isaiah, 
in the plainest terms, denounces slaA'ery in the folloAving 
language: *'Is not this the fast that I haA^e chosen? to 
loose the bonds of Avickedness, to undo the lieaA^y bur- 
dens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break 
every yoke ?" Isaiah Iviii, 6. The meaning of this 
passage is that they Avould loose the bonds of wickedness, 
or cease to do wrong. They AA^ere to "undo the heavy 
burdens ;" they AA^ere to release captives or slaves, as the 
Scripture phraseology means. ''He sent a man before 
them, even Joseph, Avho Avas sold for a servant : AAdiose 
feet they hurt Avith fetters : he Avas laid in iron : until the 
time that his Avord came : the Avord of the Lord tried 
him. The king sent and loosed him ; even the ruler of 
the people, and let him go free." Psalm ca^, 17-20. 
"The Lord looseth the prisoners." Psalm cxlvi, 7. 



220 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

The instructions of the prophet were, that the Jews should 
observe the Mosaic code, so as to set free any that had 
been enslaved, or had been detained in service beyond the 
time of contract. 

8, We have another historical narrative, pertinent to 
our subject, which took place before Christ 589, as penned 
by Jeremiah. "This is the word that came unto Jere- 
miah from the Lord, after that the king Zedekiah had 
made a covenant with all the people which were at Jeru- 
salem, to proclaim liberty unto them ; that every man 
should let his man-servant, and every man his maid- 
servant, being a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free ; that 
none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his 
brother. Now when all the princes, and all the people 
which had entered into the covenant, heard that every 
one should let his man-servant, and every one his maid- 
servant, go free, that none should serve themselves of 
them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go. But 
afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the 
handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and 
brought them into subjection for servants and for hand- 
maids. Therefore the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah 
from the Lord, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the God of 
Israel ; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day 
that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out 
of the house of bondmen, saying, At the end of seven 
years, let ye go every man his brother a Hebrew, which 
hath been sold unto thee ; and when he hath served thee 
six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee ; but your 
fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear. 
And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, 
in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor ; and 
ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is 
called by my name : but ye turned and polluted my name, 
and caused every man his servant, and every man his 



WORKING OF THE MOSAIC CODE. 221 

handmaid, whom lie had set at liberty at their pleasure, 
to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto 
you for servants and for handmaids. Therefore thus 
saith the Lord ; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in pro- 
claiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man 
to his neighbor : behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, 
saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the 
famine ; and I will make you to be removed into all the 
kingdoms of the earth. And I will give the men that 
have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed 
the words of the covenant which they had made before 
me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between 
the parts thereof, the princes of Judah, and the j^rinces of 
Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the peo- 
ple of the land, which passed between the parts of the 
calf; I will even give them into the hand of their ene- 
mies, and into the hand of them that seek their life : and 
their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the 
heaven, and to the beasts of the earth." Jeremiah xxxiv, 
8-20. 

In the foregoing passage of holy Scripture there is a 
plain recognition of the Mosaic code respecting Hebrew 
service which could never legally become perpetual. The 
Jews are severely censured for breaking that law ; yet 
through the persuasion of the prophet they were induced 
to observe its precepts and release the servants from the 
unjust service continued beyond the sixth year. They 
wei-e threatened with the most severe judgments should 
they compel the servants to become slaves, by continuing 
them servants for life. They Avere to be subject "to the 
sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine," and to be 
removed ''into all the kingdoms of the earth." The 
whole shows that the believers were not to be made slaves 
according to the interpretation and practice which the 
prophets insisted oij under the Mosaic law. There was a 



222 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

conformity between their crime and punishment. As 
they promised to give liberty to their brethren, the Al- 
mighty promised to give liberty to the sword, pestilence, 
and famine to destroy them. 

9. There existed among the Jews neither a domestic nor 
foreign slave-trade, and, therefore, there was no slavery 
among them, because all slave nations have a slave-trade 
of some sort or other. 

We can find no traces of a domestic slave-trade among 
the Jews from Moses to Christ. There were, we allow, 
such compacts as were necessary in fixing the terms of 
service between the different classes of servants and their 
masters, in reference to the various times and conditions 
of service. But there were no sales of men as property 
among the Jews, so as to make merchandise of men. 
There is a total absence of any account of such trafSc in 
the Jewish writings. 

Nor was there any foreign slave-trade between the Jews 
and other nations ; although this trade existed in all the 
nations around them. To facilitate trade Solomon built 
Tadmor or Palmyra, and Ezion-Geber on the Red Sea. 
Yet, in every allusion to the trade carried on with these 
and other nations, there is no allusion to the traffic in 
slaves. There is mention of gold, silver, ivory, apes, 
and peacocks ; but no allusion to a commerce in slaves. 
(Compare 1 Kings ix, 26; x, 22 ; 2 Chronicles ix, 21.) 

A part of the commerce of the Syrians consisted in 
slaves. Yet, though the Jews traded with them, there 
is no mention of slaves, though other articles of com- 
merce are mentioned. (Ezekiel xxvii, 13, 17; Compare 
Revelation xviii, 13.) 

In the whole history of the Jews, there is no mention 
of slaves as an article of commerce. There is no men- 
tion of them in the goods received. There is no instance 
of public sale of slaves. We have no mention of either 



WORKING OF THE MOSAIC CODE. 223 

a market-place for slaves, nor of slave-merchants. If 
slavery existed among the Jews, there must have been 
some account of the traffic in slaves ; but, as there is an 
absence of all this, the conclusion is, that the trade did 
not exist ; for slavery could not exist without a slave- 
trade of some sort. 

Indeed, the j)i'opbets freely denounced every step in 
which Hebrew service might degenerate into slavery. 
This is manifest from the historical passages we have 
already quoted and considered. The conclusion is, that 
the Mosaic institutions did not favor slavery, but were 
inconsistent with it. Hence, slavery altogether ceased out 
of the land of Palestine. 

10. In the period elapsing from the close of the Old 
Testament canon, till the birth of Christ, there are no 
declarations to be found in the apocryphal books, or in 
Josephus, Avhich declare or intimate that slavery existed 
among the Jews. Hence, our Savior, as his ministry 
was exercised among the Jews, never came in contact 
with slavery among them. 



224 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 

1. The origin of slavery in the world may be briefly 
sketched as follows : 

The merchandise of men is said to commence in the 
days of Nimrod. It was coeval with man, and we read of 
wars as early as the days of Abraham. The history of 
Joseph shows that it existed in those days. Egypt seems 
to have been the first market for the sale of human be- 
ings. Homer mentions Cyprus and Egypt as the common 
market for slaves about the time of the Trojan war, be- 
fore Christ 1184-1194. (Odyssey, Lib. XVII, 48; and 
Lib. XXVI.) The Odyssey shows further, that this traiBfic 
was practiced in many of the islands of the ^gean Sea. 
The Iliad informs us that it had taken place among the 
Grecians on the continent of Europe, who had embarked 
for the Trojan war. At the end of the seventh book of 
the Iliad we learn this was the case. Tyre and .Sidon 
were noted for the prosecution of this trade. (Joel iii, 
3, 4, 6.) This custom, too, appears to have existed in 
all countries of the world, previous to the coming of 
Christ — the land of Judea excepted. 

In the most ancient times there are said to have been 
no slaves in Greece. In after times they became very 
numerous. At Athens, three hundred and nine years 
before Christ, the slaves are computed by some authors 
to have been at four hundred thousand, by others they 
were reckoned at forty thousand, while the freemen were 
said to be only twenty-one thousand, and the metics, 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 225 

or sojourners, ten thousand. The other Grecian states 
abounded in slaves. 

Among the Romans slavery abounded. Gibbon — Fall 
and Decline, Chapter I — estimates the population of 
Rome, in the days of Claudius, at one hundred and 
twenty millions. One half of these, according to Gib- 
bon, or two-thirds, according to Robertson, were slaves. 
They were found in every province of the empire, Judea 
excepted. At the coming of Christ, and when the New 
Testament was written, the sway of Rome extended over 
the civilized world ; and with it its laws, and those on 
slavery as well as other laws. 

2. On this account we will, so far as our limits will 
allow, present the Roman code on slavery ; as this, more 
than any other source of information, will give us an 
accurate view of the subject, especially as it is connected 
with the Church. The Justinian law consists of four 
principal parts — the Institutes, the Digest or Pandects, 
the Code, and the Xovellce. The Institutes are an abridged 
digest of the whole. To the Justinian law is also added 
the Imperial Constitutions, and other additions of subse- 
quent times. 

The Emperor Justinian, in the year of Christ 528, 
ordered the compilation, which was performed and pub- 
lished the year following, by Tribonian, and other emi- 
nent lawyers. As the Institutes are a pretty full outline of 
Roman law, we make our extracts from them, and refer 
to the Pandects, Codex, and other parts of the civil law, 
when necessary. We give all we can find in the Insti- 
tutes on slavery, so that our selections are full, if not 
complete ; for it would require an unnecessary minuteness 
to enter into all the nice legal details of the Pandects, 
Code, Novelise, etc. 

It is, however, proper to state, that the Institutes give 
cj^uite too favorable a view of the legal ameliorations of 



226 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

the slave system, as it existed in the days of Christ and 
his apostles. The reason is, that the Institutes construe 
the Christian elements diffused into the old law, as they 
were introduced by Constantine, Justinian, and 'other 
Christian Emperors. For instance, the law empowering 
the ministers of religion to emancipate, by vindicta, at the 
churches, is a Christian element, and did not exist in 
the days of Christ. This is a mere specimen, as will be 
seen in our chapter on the effect of Christianity on Roman 
civil law. 

1. LEGAL DEFINITIONS. 

"Justice is the constant and perpetual disjaosition to 
render every man his due." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 1.) 

" Jurisprudence is the knowledge of things divine and 
human; the science of what is just and unjust." (Insti- 
tutes, Lib. I, Tit. 1, Sec. 1.) 

"The prece]3ts of the law are, to live honestly, to hurt 
no one, to give q\qtj one his due." (Institutes, Lib. I, 
Tit. 1, Sec. 3.) 

" The law of nature is a law not only to man, but, 
likewise, to all other animals, whether produced on the 
earth, in the air, or in the waters. From hence proceeds 
that conjunction of male and female, which we denomin- 
ate matrimony ; hence the procreation and education of 
children." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 2.) 

" Civil law is distinguished from the law of nations, 
because every community governed by laws uses partly 
its own, and partly the laws which are common to all 
mankind. The law which a people enacts for its own 
government, is called the civil law of that people. But 
that law which natural reason appoints for mankind, is 
called the law of nations, because all nations make use 
of it." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 2, Sec. 1.) 

"The law of nations is common to all mankind, and 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 227 

all nations have enacted some laws, as occasion and 
necessity required ; for wars arose, and the consequences 
were captivity and slavery ; both of which are contrary 
to the law of nature ; for by that laAv all men are born 
free." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 2, Sec. 2.) 

"The laws of nature, observed by all nations, inas- 
much as they are the appointment of a certain divine 
providence, remain fixed and immutable. But the laws 
which every city has enacted for itself, suffer frequent 
changes, either by tacit consent of the j)eople, or by some 
subsequent law." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 2, Sec. 11.) 

2. OF THE RIGHT OF PERSONS. 

"The first general division of persons, in respect to 
their rights, is into freemen and slaves." (Institutes, Lib. 
1, Tit. 3. See Digest, Lib. I, Tit. 5.) 

" Freedom, or liberty, from which we are denominated 
free, is the natural power of acting as we please, unless 
prevented by force or by the law." (Institutes, I, 3, 1.) 

" Slavery is when one man is subject to the dominion 
of another, according to the law of nations, though con- 
trary to natural rights." (Institutes, I, 3, 2.) 

** Slaves are denominated servi, from the practice of 
our generals to sell their captives, and thus preserve — 
seruare — and not slay them. Slaves are also called 
mancijyia, in that they are taken from the enemy, by 
hand." (Manuca2:)ti) (Institutes, I, 3, 3.) 

" Slaves are born such, or become so. They are born 
such, or of bondwomen. They become so either by the 
law of nations, that is, by captivity, or by the civil law% 
as wdien a free person, above the age of twenty, sufiers 
himself to be sold, for the sake of sharing the price given 
for him." (Institutes, I, 3, 4.) 

" There is no difference in the condition of slaves ; but 
among free persons there are many ; thus some are 



228 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

ingenuiy or freemen, others, libertini, or freed-men." (In- 
stitutes, I, 3, 5.) 

3. OF INGE NUT, OR FREEMEN. 

** A freeman is one who is born free, by being born in 
matrimony, of parents who are both free, or both freed ; 
or of parents, one free, the other freed. But one born of 
a free mother, although the father be a slave, or unknown, 
is free, notwithstanding he was conceived discreditably. 
And if the mother is free at the time of the birth, al- 
though a bondwoman when she conceived, the infant 
will be free." (Institutes, I, 4. Cod., Lib. YII, Tit. 14. 
J)e ingenuis manumissis.) 

4. OF LIBERTINI, OR FREED-MEN— MANUMISSION. 

*' Freed-men are those who have been manumitted from 
just slavery. Manumission — manu-datio — implies the 
giving of liberty ; for whosoever is in servitude, is sub- 
ject to the hand and power of another ; but whosoever 
is manumitted is free from both." 

** Manumission took its rise from the law of nations; 
for all men, by the law of nature, are born free ; nor was 
manumission heard of while slavery was unknown. But 
when slavery, imder sanction of the law of nations, 
invaded liberty, the benefit of manumission became then 
a consequence ; for all men, at first, were denominated 
by one common appellation, till, by the law of nations, 
they began to be divided into three classes, namely, into 
liberi, or freemen, servi, or slaves, and libertini, or freed- 
men, who have ceased to be slaves." (Institutes, Lib. I, 
Tit. 5.) 

5. IN WHAT MODES AND TIMES THEY ARE MANUMITTED. 

"Manumission is effected by various ways; either in 
the face of the Church, according to the imperial consti- 



I 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 229 

tutions, or by the vindicta, or in tlie presence of friends, or 
by letter, or by testament, or by any other last will. Lib- 
erty may also be conferred upon a slave by divers other 
methods, some of which were introduced by former 
laws, and others by our own." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 
5, Sec. 1.) 

"Slaves maybe manumitted by their masters at any 
time, even on the way, as while the praetor, the governor 
of a province, or the proconsul is going to the bath or 
the theater." (Institutes, I, 5, 2.) 

On manumission, see C, Lib. VII, Tit. 15. Communia 
de manumissionlbus. 

6. THE DISTINCTIONS BETAYEEN FREED-ilEN ANNULLED. 

"Freed-men were formerly distinguished by a three- 
fold division. Those who were manumitted, sometimes 
obtained the greater liberty, and became Roman citizens ; 
sometimes only the lesser, and became Latins, under the 
law Jimia, J^arbonia ; and sometimes only the inferior 
liberty, and became Dedititii, by the law ^lia Sentia. 
But the condition of the Dedititii, diifering but little from 
slavery, has been long disused ; neither has the name of 
Latins been frequent. Our piety, therefore, leading us to 
reduce all things into a better state, we have amended our 
laws by two constitutions, and re-established the ancient 
usage ; for, anciently, liberty was sim23le and undivided ; 
that is, it was conferred upon the slave as his manumittor 
possessed it ; admitting this single dift'erence, that the per- 
son manumitted became only a freed-man, although his 
manumittor was a freeman. We have abolished the 
Dedititii by a constitution published among our decis- 
ions, by which, at the instance of Tribonian, our Quaestor, 
we have suppressed all disputes concerning the ancient 
law. We have, also, at his suggestion, altered the con- 
dition of the Latins, and corrected the laws which related 



230 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

to them, by another constitution, conspicuous among the 
imperial sanctions, and we have made all the freed-men 
as general citizens of Rome, regarding neither the age of 
the manumitted, nor of the manumittor, nor the ancient 
forms of manumission. We have, also, introduced many- 
new methods, by which slaves may become Roman citi- 
zens ; the only liberty that can now be conferred." (In- 
stitutes, I, 5, 3.) 

7. WHO CAN NOT MANUMIT, AND FOR WHAT CAUSES. 

(Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 6. Compare and consult D., 
XL, Tit, 9, Qui et a quihus ; C, VII, Tit. 11, Qui manu- 
mittere non ]Jossunt.) 

THE FIKST CHAPTER OF THE ^LIAN LAW, CONCERNING MANU- 
MITTING IN FRAUD OF CREDITORS. 

"Every master may not manumit by will ; for, if done 
with intent to defraud his creditors, it is void ; the law 
^lia Sentia restraining this liberty." 

CONCERNING A SLAVE INVESTED WITH LIBERTY. 

" Section 1. A master who is insolvent, may appoint a 
slave to be his heir with liberty, that thus the slave may 
obtain his freedom, and become the only and necessary 
heir of the testator, j)rovided no other person is also heir 
by the same testament ; and this may happen, either be- 
cause no other person was instituted heir, or because the 
person so instituted is unwilling to act. This privilege 
of masters was, for wise reasons, established by the law 
^lia Sentia. For it became necessary to provide, that 
indigent men, to whom no man would be a voluntary 
heir, might have a slave for a necessary heir, to satisfy 
creditors ; or that the creditors should sell the hereditary 
effects in the name of the slave, lest the deceased should 
suffer ignominy." 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 231 



OF A SLAVE MADE AN HEIR WITHOUT LIBERTY. 

" Section 2. A slave also becomes free by being insti- 
tuted an heir, although his freedom be not mentioned ; 
for our constitution respects not only the insolvent mas- 
ter, but, by a new act of humanity, it extends generally ; 
so that the institution of an heir implies the grant of 
liberty. For it is highly improbable, that a testator, 
although he has omitted to mention liberty in his will, 
could mean that the person instituted should remain a 
slave, and himself be destitute of an heir." 

8. WHAT IS MANUMISSION IN FRAUD OF CREDITORS. 

" Section 3. Manumission is in fraud of creditors, if the 
master is insolvent when he manumits, or become so by 
manumitting. It is, however, the prevailing opinion, 
that liberty, when granted, is not impeached unless the 
manumittor meant to defraud, although his goods are 
insufficient for the payment of his creditors ; for men fre- 
quently hope better than their circumstances really are. 
We, therefore, understand liberty to be then only impeded, 
when creditors are doubly defrauded, by the intention of 
the manumittor, and in reality. 

" Section 4. By the same law, jElia Sentia, a master, 
under the age of twenty years, can not manumit unless 
for some good reason to be approved by a council, and 
then by the vindicta." 

9. WHAT ARE JUST CAUSES FOR MANUMISSION. 

" Section 5. Just reasons for manumission, are, that 
the person to be manumitted is father or mother to the 
manumittor, his son or daughter, his brother or sister, 
his preceptor, his nurse, his foster-child, or his foster- 
brother, or to constitute him his proctor, or his bond- 
woman, with an intent to marry her, provided the mar- 



232 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

riage is performed witliin six months. But a slave who 
is to be constituted proctor, can not he manumitted for 
that purpose, if under seventeen." 

A REASON ONCE ADMITTED. 

" Section 6. A reason once admitted in favor of lib- 
erty, be it true or false, can not be recalled." 

10. ABROGATION OF THE LAST CHAPTER OF THE LAW 

^LIA SENTIA. 

" Section 7. When certain bounds were prescribed by 
the law ^lia Sentia, to all minors under twenty, with 
regard to manumission, it was observed that any person 
who had completed fourteen years might make a testa- 
ment — institute an heir, and bequeath legacies, and yet 
that no pei'son under twenty could confer liberty, which 
was not longer to be tolerated ; for, can any just cause be 
assigned why a man permitted to dispose of all his effects 
by testament, should be debarred from enfranchising his 
slaves ? But liberty being of inestimable value, and our 
ancient laws prohibiting any person to make a grant of 
it, who is under twenty years of age : we, therefore, make 
choice of a middle way, and permit all who have attained 
their eighteenth year to confer liberty by testament. For 
since, by former practice, persons at eighteen years of age 
were permitted to plead for their clients, there is no reason 
why the same stability of judgment which qualifies them 
to assist others should not enable them to be of service to 
themselves also, by having the liberty of enfranchising 
their own slaves." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 6. Consult 
D., XL, Tit. 9 ; and C, VII, Tit. 11.) 

11. THE POWER OF MASTERS OVER SLAVES. 

"All slaves are in the power of their masters, a power 
derived from the law of nations ; for it is observable 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 233 

among all nations, that masters had the power of life 
and death over their slaves, and that whatever the slave 
acquires is acquired by the master." (Institutes, Lib. I, 
Tit. 8, L. 1.) 

" All our subjects are now forbidden to inflict any 
extraordinary punishment upon their slaves, without legal 
cause. For, by a constitution of Antonimis, whoever 
causelessly kills his own slave, is to be punished equally 
as if he had killed the slave of another. The too great 
severity of masters is also restrained by another constitu- 
tion of Antoninus, who, being consulted by certain gov- 
ernors of provinces concerning slaves, who take sanctu- 
ary in temples, or at the statues of the emperors, ordained, 
that, if the severity of masters should appear excessive, 
they might be compelled to make sale of their slaves on 
equitable terms, so that the masters might receive the 
value, and properly, inasmuch as it is for the public 
good that no one should be permitted to misuse even his 
own property." (Institutes, I, 8, 2. See, also, on this. 
Dig., I, Tit, 6.) 

12. THE POWER OF PARENTS OYER CHILDREN. 

** Our children, begotten in lawful wedlock, are under 
our power. 

" Section 1. Matrimony is a connection between a 
man and woman, implying a mutual and exclusive co- 
habitation during life. 

*' Section 2. The power which we have over our chil- 
dren is peculiar to the citizens of Rome ; for no other 
people have the same power over their children which 
we have over ours. 

" Section 3. The child of you and your wife is under 

your power. The issue of your son and his wife, that is, 

your grandsons or granddaughters, are equally so ; so 

are your great grandchildren, etc. But children born of 

20 



234 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

a daughter are not in your power, but in the power of 
their father or grandfather," (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 9. 
See, also, C, VIII, Tit. 47.) 

"Illegitimate children, or those born out of wedlock, 
are looked upon as having no father : they are, therefore, 
called, in Latin, sjna'ii, and in Greek aTtatop^^, avatores ; 
that is, without a father. They are, therefore, not under 
the power of the father." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 10, 
L. 12.) 

But natural children become legitimate whenever the 
parents become married, and they are then under the 
powwer of the father. (L. 13.) 

Adopted children are also under the power of the 
father. (Institutes, I, 11.) 

*'The following answer of Cato was approved by the 
ancient lawyers, namely, that slaves adopted by their 
masters obtain freedom by the adoption. Thus in- 
structed, we have ordained, that a slave whom any mas- 
ter nominates to be his son, in the presence of a magis- 
trate, becomes free by such nomination, although it does 
not confer on him any filial right." (Institutes, I, 

11, 12.) 

" A man may, by testament, assign his own slave to 
be a tutor with liberty. But note, that, if a slave be 
appointed tutor by testament, without mentioning liberty, 
he seems tacitly to be enfranchised, and is thus legally 
constituted a tutor." (Institutes, I, 14, 1.) 

''Although civil policy may extinguish civil rights, 
yet over natural rights it has no such power." (Insti- 
tutes, I, 15, 3.) 

13. OF DIMINUTION. 

** Diminution is the change of a man's former condi- 
tion, and this is threefold — the greater, the less, and the 
least." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 16.) 



THE ROMAN LAW ON S L A V E K Y . 235 

**The greater diminution is, when a man loses both 
the right of a citizen and his liberty, as they do who, by 
rigor of their sentence, become the slaves of punishment ; 
and freed-men, who are condemned to slavery for in- 
gratitude to their patrons ; and all such who suffer 
themselves to be sold, to share the price." (Institutes, 
I, 16, 1.) 

*' The manumission of a slave produces no change of 
state in him, because he had no state, or civil capacity." 
(Institutes, I, 16, 4.) 

"By the greater diminution, as by slavery, the right of 
cognation is wholly destroyed, even so as not to be recov- 
ered by manumission." (Institutes, I, 16, Sec. 6.) 

" Patrons and their children shall succeed to the inher- 
itance of their freed-men, or freed- women, who die intes- 
tate." (Institutes, I, Tit. 17.) 

CHILDREX INHERIT THE SLAVES OF THEIR PARENTS. 

** The condition of a slave is not altered at the death 
of his master ; for he then becomes a slave to the children 
of the deceased." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 19.) 

" When a tutor under the greater diminution of state 
loses his liberty and his citizenship, his tutelage is extin- 
guished." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 22, Sec. 4.) 

"Males arrived at puberty, and females marriageable, 
do, nevertheless, receive curators till they have completed 
their twenty -fifth year ; for they are not yet of an age to 
take proper care of their own affairs." (Institutes, I, 
Tit. 23.) 

" What we take from our enemies in war, becomes 
instantly our own by the law of nations ; so that free- 
men may be brought into a state of slavery by capture ; 
but, if they afterward escape, and return to their own 
people, they obtain again their former state." (Insti- 
tutes, II, Tit. 1, Sec. 17.) 



236 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 



14. WHAT ARE FRUITS. 

" Among the produce of animals, we not only reckon 
milk, skins, and wool, but also their young ; and, there- 
fore, lambs, kids, calves, colts, and pigs appertain by 
natural right to the usufructuary ; but the offspring of a 
female slave can not be thus considered, but belongs to 
the proprietor of such slave ; for it seemed absurd, that 
man should be enumerated among the articles of produce, 
seeing that for his use nature hath furnished all kinds 
of produce." (Institutes, 11, Tit. 1, Sec. 37.) 

*' Things corporeal are tangible ; as lands, slaves, vest- 
ments, gold, silver, and others innumerable." (Insti- 
tutes, II, Tit. 2.) 

** The usufruct not only of lands and houses is granta- 
ble, but also of slaves, cattle, and other things, except 
those which are consumed by use." (Institutes, II, Tit. 
4, Sec. 2.) 

WHAT MAY NOT GIVE THE RIGHT OF POSSESSION. 

** No length of time will be sufficient to found a pre- 
scription ; as when a man holds a free person, a thing 
sacred or religious, or a fugitive slave." (Institutes, Lib. 
II, Tit. 6, Sec. 1.) 

** No prescription lies for things that have been stolen, 
or seized by violence, although they have been possessed 
bona fide, during the length of time required by our con- 
stitution ; for prescription to things stolen is prohibited 
by a law of the twelve tables, and by the law of Atilia ; 
and the laws of Julia and Plantia forbid a prescription 
to things seized by violence. Whosoever hath know- 
ingly sold or transferred the goods of another, upon what- 
ever consideration, is guilty of theft." (Institutes, II, 
Tit. 6, Sec. 2.) 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 237 



15. SLATES CAN HAVE NO PROPERTY— ALL BELONGS TO 

THE MASTER. 

*' Section 3. Whatever your slaves have at any time 
acquired, whether by delivery, stipulation, donation, be- 
quest, or any other means, is acquired by you ; although 
you may be ignorant of or even averse to the acquisition ; 
for he who is a slave can have no property ; and if a 
slave be made heir, he can not otherwise take upon him- 
self the inheritance than at the command of his master ; 
but if commanded so to do, the inheritance is as fully ac- 
quired by the master as if he had been himself made heir, 
and consequently a legacy left to a slave is acquired by 
his master. Moreover, masters acquire by their slaves 
not only the property of things, but also the possession ; 
for whatever is possessed by a slave is deemed to be pos- 
sessed by his master, who may found a prescription to it 
by means of his slave." (Institutes, Lib. II, Tit. 9.) 

** Section 4. As to slaves of whom you have the usu- 
fruct only, it hath seemed right that whatever they earn by 
means of your goods, or by their own work or labor, ap- 
pertains to you ; but whatever they earn by other means 
belongs to the proprietor. Therefore, if a slave be made 
heir, or legatee, or donee, the inheritance, legacy, or gift 
W'ill not be acquired by the usufructuary master, but for 
the proprietor." (Id.) 

*' Section 5. The same rule is observed as to the hona-fide 
possessor of a slave, whether he be a freeman or the slave 
of another ; for the same law prevails respecting a usu- 
fructuary master and a hona-fide possessor. Therefore, 
whatever is acquired otherwise than by the two ca^lscs 
above mentioned, either belongs to the person possessed, 
if he be free, or to the proprietor, if he be a slave. But 
a hona-fide possessor, who hath gained a slave by usucap- 
tion or prescription — inasmuch as he thus becomes the 



238 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

al)solute proprietor — can acquire by means of sucli slave, 
by all manner of ways. But a usufructuary master can 
not prescribe : first, because be can not be strictly said 
to possess, having only the power of using ; and because 
he knows the slave belongs to another. We nevertheless 
may acquire not only property, but also possession, by 
means of slaves whom we possess bona fide, or by usu- 
fruct, and even by a free person, of whom we have bona- 
fide possession. But in saying this, we adhere to the 
distinction before explained, and speak of those things 
only of which a slave may acquire the possession., either 
through the goods of his master or by his own industry." 
(Id., Sec. 4.) 

16. -VYHO ARE WITNESSES. 

** Those persons are good witnesses who can legally 
take by testament ; but no woman, or minor under pu- 
berty, or slave, no person mad, mute, or deaf, no inter- 
dicted prodigal, nor any whom the laws have reprobated 
and rendered intestable, can be admitted a witness to a 
testament." (Institutes, Lib. II, Tit. 10, Sec. 6.) 

17. OF lilAKING WILLS-PECULIUM. 

** The right of making a will is not granted to all. 
Persons under the power of others, have not this right ; 
so that, although parents have given permission, this will 
not enable their children to make a valid will." (Insti- 
tutes, II, 12.) 

» 

THE PECULIUM. 

*' By the civil law, 'peculia, or estates of those who are 
under power, are reckoned among the wealth of their 
parents, in the same manner as the pecidiiim of a slave 
is esteemed the property of his master." (Institutes, 
IT, 1, 2.) 



THE ROxMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 239 

18. OF HEIRS. 

"A man may appoint slaves, as well as freemen, to be 
his heirs by testament, and may nominate the slaves of 
another as well as his own ; yet, according to the opinion 
of many, no master could formally make his own slaves 
his heirs without freeing them ; but at present, by our 
Constitution, masters may do this, which we have intro- 
duced not for the sake of innovation, but because it 
seemed most just, and because Paulus, in his commenta- 
ries upon Sablnus and Glcmt'ius, affirms that this was also 
the opinion of Atillcinas. We call a slave proprius ser- 
vus if the testator had only a naked property in him, the 
usufruct being in another. But in a Constitution of the 
Emperors Severns and Antoninus there is a case in which 
a slave was not permitted to be instituted heir by his 
owner, although his liberty was expressly given to him. 
The words are, ' It is consonant to right reason that no 
slave, accused of adultery with his mistress, shall be 
allowed, before a sentence of acquittal, to be made free 
by that mistress, who is alleged to be a partner in the 
crime. Hence, if a mistress institute a slave such to be 
her heir, it is of no avail.' Alienus servus is one of whom 
the testator has only the usufruct." (Institutes, II, 14.) 

*' A slave instituted an heir by his master while he is a 
slave, becomes free at the death of his master, as well as 
his necessary heir by virtue of the Avill. But if he be 
manumitted in the lifetime of his master, he may accept 
or refuse the inheritance ; for he does not become a nec- 
essary heir, since he does not obtain both his liberty and 
the inheritance by virtue of the testament. But if he 
should be aliened he can not enter upon the inheritance, 
unless at the command of his new master, who, though 
his slave, mav become the heir of the testator. For a 
slave aliened can not obtain his liberty, nor take an 



240 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

inlieritance to his own use, "by virtue of tlie testament 
of the master who transferred him, although his freedom 
was expressly given by such testament ; because a master 
who has aliened his slave seems to have renounced the 
intention of enfranchising him ; and when the slave of 
another has been appointed heir, but remains in slavery, 
he can not take the inheritance but by his master's order ; 
and if the slave be aliened in the lifetime of the testator, 
or even after his death, before he has actually taken the 
inheritance, he must accept or refuse it at the command 
of his new master. But if the slave be enfranchised 
while the testator is alive, or after his death, before ho 
has accepted the heirshij), he may enter upon the inherit- 
ance or not, at his option." (Institutes, II, Tit. 14, 
Sec. 1.) 

" The slave of another may legally be instituted an 
heir after the death of his master ; for slaves of an inher- 
itance not entered upon may take by testament ; for an 
inheritance not yet entered upon represents the person of 
the deceased, and not of the future heir. Thus the slave 
even of a child in the womb may be constituted an heir." 
(Id., Sec. 2.) 

" If the slave of many masters, all capable of taking 
by testament, is instituted heir by a stranger, he acquires 
a part of the inheritance for each master, who com- 
manded him to take it, according to the several propor- 
tions of property." (Id., Sec. 3.) 

. THE SUBSTITUTION OF HEXES. 

"A man by will may appoint many degrees of heirs, 
and in default of all others he mav constitute a slave his 

t/ 

necessary heir." (Institutes, II, Tit. 15.) 

" If a testator constitute the slave of another his heir, 
supposing him free, and add, If he does not become my !l 
heir, I substitute Mcevius in his place, then, if that slave 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 241 

should enter on tlie inheritance at the command of his 
master, M^eviiis, the substitute, would he admitted to a 
moiety." (Id., Sec. 4.) 

DIVISION OF HEIRS NECESSAEY HEIRS. 

** A slave, instituted an heir by his master, is a neces- 
sary heir ; and he is so called because, at the death of 
the testator, he becomes instantly free, and is compellable 
to take the heirship ; he, therefore, who suspects his cir- 
cumstances, commonly institutes his slave to be his heir 
in the first, second, or some other place ; so that, if he 
does not leave a sum equal to his debts, the goods which 
are seized, sold, or divided among his creditors, may 
rather seem to be those of his heir than his own. But a 
slave, in recompense of this inconvenience, is allowed 
whatever he hath acquired after the death of his patron ; 
for such acquisitions are not to be sold, although the 
goods of the deceased should ever be so insufficient for 
the payment of his creditors." (Institutes, II, 19, 1.) 

** If a testator bequeath his female slaves and their ofif- 
spring, although the slaves die, their issue becomes due 
to the legatee ; and so if ordinary slaves are bequeathed 
together with vicarial ; for although the ordinary slaves 
die, yet the vicarial slaves will pass by virtue of the be- 
quest. But where a slave is bequeathed with his peculiumf 
and afterward dies, or is manumitted or aliened, the leg- 
acy of the peculium becomes extinct. The consequences 
will be the same if a piece of ground is bequeathed with 
the instruments of improving it ; for if the testator aliens 
the ground, the legacy of the instruments of husbandry 
is, of course, extinguished." (Institutes, II, 20, 17.) 

19. OF THE PECULIUM. 

** When the peculium of a slave is bequeathed, it is 

certain that the increase or decrease of it in the life of 

21 



242 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

the testator becomes the loss of the legatee ; and if the 
peculium of a slave be left to him with his liberty, and 
he increase the peculium subsequent to the death of the 
testator, and before the inheritance is entered upon, it 
is the opinion of Julian that the increase will pass to him 
as a legatee ; for such a legacy does not become due but 
from the day of the acceptance of the inheritance ; but 
should the 'peculium of a slave be bequeathed to a 
stranger, an increase, acquired within the period above 
mentioned, will not pass under the legacy, unless the 
acquisition were made by means of something apper- 
taining to the pecnlium ; for the peculium of a slave does 
not belong to him after he is manumitted by testament, 
unless expressly given ; although if a master in his life- 
time manumit his slave, his peculium will pass to him, 
of course, if not excejDted. And such is the rescript of 
the Emj)erors Severus and Antoninus, who have also de- 
clared that when a peculium is bequeathed to a slave, it 
does not seem intended that he should have the right of 
demanding what he may have expended for the use of 
the master. The same princes have further declared that 
a slave seems entitled to his peculium if his liberty be left 
him, on condition that he will bring in his accounts, and 
supply any deficiency out of the profits of the peculium^ 
(Institutes, II, 20, Sec. 20.) 

** A freed-man might formerly, with impunity, omit in 
his will any mention of his patron ; for the law of the 
twelve tables called the patron to the inheritance only 
when the freed-man died intestate without proper heirs ; 
but when the freed-man left only an adopted son, it was 
manifestly injurious that the patron should have no 
claim." (Institutes, III, 8.) 

** The law was therefore amended by the edict of the 
prastor ; for every freed-man who made his testament was 
commanded so to dispose his effects as to leave a moiety 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 243 

to his patron ; and if the testator left nothing, or less 
than a moiety, then possession of half was given to the 
patron contrary to the will ; and if a freed-man die intes- 
tate, leaving an adopted heir, the possession of a half 
was given to the patron ; but disinherited children by no 
means repelled the patron." (Id., Sec. 1.) 

" But afterward the rights of patrons who had wealthy 
freed-men were enlarged by the Paphian law, which pro- 
vides that he shall have a man's share out of the effects 
of his freed-man, whether dying testate or intestate, who 
hath left a patrimony of a hundred thousand sestertii and 
fewer than three children ; so that, when a freed-man hath 
left only one son or daughter, a half is due to the patron, 
as i£ the deceased had died testate without either son or 
daughter. But when there are two heirs, male or female, 
a third part only is due to the patron ; and when there 
are three, the patron is wholly excluded." (Id., Sec. 2.) 

" But our Constitution ordained that if a freed-man or 
freed-woman die possessed of less than one hundred arvrei, 
the patron shall not be entitled to any share in a testate 
succession. But where a freed-man, or woman, dies in- 
testate and without children, we have reserved the right 
of patronage entire as it formerly was, according to the 
law of the twelve tables. But if a freed person die worth 
more than a hundred arvrei, and leave one child or many 
of either sex or degree as the heirs and possessors of his 
goods, we have permitted that such child or children 
shall succeed their parent to the entire exclusion of the 
patron and his heirs ; and if any freed persons die with- 
out children and intestate, we have called their patrons or 
patronesses to their whole inheritances ; and if any freed 
person, worth more than a hundred arvrei, hath made a 
testament, omitting his patron, and left no children or 
hath disinherited them ; or if a mother or maternal grand- 
father, being freed persons, have omitted to mention their 



244 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

children in tlieir wills, so that such wills can not be 
proved to be inofficious, then, by virtue of our Constitu- 
tion, the patron shall succeed, not to a half, as formerly, 
but to a third part of the estate of the deceased, by pos- 
session contra tabulas ; and, when freed persons leave less 
than the third part of their effects to their patrons, our 
Constitution ordains that the deficiency shall be sup- 
plied." (Id., Sec. 3.) 

The foregoing relates to the more modern freed-men of 
Rome, who were all Roman citizens ; for previous to Jus- 
tinian — or A. D. 527 — the Dedititii and Lat'mi never en- 
joyed any right of succession ; for though they led the 
lives of freed-men, at death they lost their liberties ; for 
their possessions, like the goods of slaves, were seized by 
their manumittor, who possessed them as pecuUum by 
virtue of the law Junia Narhona. But Justinian decreed 
that all freed-men might become freemen of Rome or 
Roman citizens. (Id., Sec. 4.) 

OF THE ASSIGNMENT OF FREED-MEN. 

''Although the goods of freed-men belonging equally 
to all the children of the patron who are in the same de- 
gree, yet it is lawful for a parent to assign a f reed-man to 
any one of his children." (Institutes, III, 9.) 

" Freed persons of either sex are assignable, not only 
to a son or grandson, but to a daughter or grand- 
daughter." (Id., Sec. 1.) 

" The power of assigning freed persons is given to him 
who hath two or more children unemancipated, so that a 
father may assign a freed-man or freed- woman to chil- 
dren retained under their power ; hence, if a father would 
assisrn a freed-man to his son, and afterward emanci- 
pate that son, the assignment would be good." (Id., 
Sec. 2.) 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 245 

20. A NEW SPECIES OF SUCCESSION. 

"A new species of succession hath taken its rise from 
the Constitution of Marcus Aurelius ; for if those slaves 
to whom freedom hath been bequeathed are desirous, for 
the sake of obtaining it, that the inheritance which hath 
not been accepted by the written heir, should be adjudged 
for their benefit, they shall obtain their request." (Insti- 
tutes, III, 13.) 

By the rescript of the Emperor Marcus to Pompilius, 
Eufus declares, respecting Virginius Valeus, who by will 
bequeathed to certain persons their freedom, it was en- 
acted, 

"All those to whom freedom was directly given shall 
then become free, as if the inheritance had been entered 
upon by the written heirs ; but those whom the heir was 
ordered to manumit shall obtain their freedom from the 
testator only. . . . And lest the iise and emolument of 
this our rescript should be frustrated by any means, be it 
known to the officers of our revenue that whenever an 
exchequer lays claim to the estate of a deceased person, 
the cause of liberty is to be preferred to any jDCCuniary 
advantage ; and the estate shall be so seized as to pre- 
serve the freedom of those who could otherwise have ob- 
tained it, and this in as full a manner as if the inherit- 
ance had been entered upon the testamentary heir." (Id., 
Sec. 1.) 

"This rescript is introduced in favor of liberty, and 
also for the benefit of deceased persons, lest their effects 
should be seized and sold by their creditors ; for it is cer- 
tain that, when goods are adjudged to a particular man 
for the preservation of liberty, a sale by creditors can 
never take place ; for he to whom the goods are adjudged 
is the protector of the deceased, and must be a person 
who can give security to the creditors." (Id., Sec. 2.) 



246 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

*' This rescript takes place whenever freedom is con- 
ferred by testament. ... If a master die testate, and by 
codicil bequeath freedom, the rescript shall be in force." 
(Id., Sec. 3.) 

** Freedom once obtained shall not afterward be re- 
voked." (Id., Sec. 5.) 

" This Constitution was made for the protection of 
liberty ; and, therefore, when freedom is not given the 
Constitution has no effect." (Id., Sec. 6.) 

21. THE DECREE MIRABILIS. 

"If a free woman had debased herself by cohabiting 
with a slave, she lost her freedom by the Claudian decree, 
and, together with her freedom, her estate and substance. 
But this was, in our opinion, unworthy of our reign, and 
ought to be expunged ; hence, we have not permitted it 
to be inserted with the digests." (Institutes, Lib. Ill, 
Tit. 13.) 

22. OF A SLAVE HELD IN COMMON. 

** If a slave, who is in common to several masters, 
stipulate, he acquires a share of each master, according 
to the proportion which each has in the property of him. 
But if such slave should stipulate at the command of any 
particular master, or in his name, the thing stipulated 
will be acquired solely for that master." (Institutes, III, 
18, 3.) 

** A freeman may become a slave." *' Ex lihero servus 
fieri potest:' (Institutes, III, 20, Sec. 2.) 

"A slave is incapable not only of entering into an 
obligation with his master, but of binding himself to any 
other person." (Id., Sec. 6.) 

** A promise made for a bad purpose, such as to com- 
mit murder or sacrilege, is not binding." (Institutes, 
III, 20, Sec. 23. See, also, Cod., VIII, Tit. 39.) 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 247 

*' A slave, a piece of gromid, or a relic, can be paid as 
tlie price of a thing." (Institutes, III, 24, 2.) 

23. OF RUNAWAY OR STOLEN SLAVES. 

" If a slave who is sold should run away or be stolen, 
and no fraud or negligence can be imputed to the seller, 
it must be inquired whether the seller undertook the safe 
custody of the slave till delivery should be made ; if he 
did, he is answerable; if not, he is secure." (Institutes, 
III, 24, 3.) 

" Whoever knowingly purchases a sacred, religious, or 
public place, such as a forum or court of justice, it is 
void. But if he purchased them as profane or private, 
being imposed upon by the seller, then such purchaser, 
not being able to obtain possession, may have an action 
ex emjyto against the seller, and recover damage for the 
deceit. The law is the same if any person should mis- 
takingly buy a freeman instead of a slave." (Id., Sec. 5.) 

" Species of commerce, as that of buying and selling 
slaves, oil, wine, or corn." (Institutes, III, 26. See, 
also. Dig., XVII, Tit. 2; and Cod., Lib. IV, Tit. 37.) 

24. OBLIGATIONS FROM THOSE UNDER OUR POWER, AS 
SLAVES OR CHILDREN. 

" Whatever is acquired by our slaves is wholly our 
own ; but what is acquired by children under our power, 
by means of their contracts, must be divided according 
to our Constitution, which gives to the father the usu- 
fruct, but reserves the pro^^erty to the son." (Institutes, 
III, 29.) 

" It is certain that a slave, who is in common between 
two or more, acquires for his masters in proportion to 
their property in him, unless he stipulate or receive in 
the name of them only ; as, Do you 'promise to give such 
a thing to Titius, my master ? for although it was a doubt 



248 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

in times past whether a slave, when commanded, could 
stipulate for one of his masters, yet it is now settled by 
our decision that a slave may acquire for him only who 
hath ordered the stipulation." (Id., Sec. 3.) 

25. DEFINITION OF THEFT. 

" Theft is the taking, using, or possessing any thing 
by fraud for the sake of gain ; and this is prohibited by 
the law of nature." (Institutes, IV, 1, 1. See, also. 
Dig., XL VII, Tit. 2 ; Cod., Lib. VI, Tit. 2.) 

** A theft can never be committed unless there appear 
to have been an intention of stealing." (Id., Sec. 7.) 

** The words of the law, Aquilia, let him who kills a slave 
or beast of another forfeit the greatest price ivhich either 
could have been sold for that year, mean this : If Titius 
accidentally kill a slave, who was then lame, or wanted a 
limb, or an eye, but had been within the space of a year 
perfect in all its parts, and valuable, then Titius shall be 
liable, not merely to his value on that day, but to his 
highest value at any time within a year preceding his 
death." (Institutes, IV, 3, 9.) 

** It hath prevailed by construction, though not by the 
express word of the law, that not only the value of the 
slave is to be computed, as we have already mentioned, 
but that an estimation must be made of whatever further 
damage is occasioned by his death." (Id., Sec. 10.) 

** The master of a slave who is killed may bring a civil 
action of damages founded on the law Aqnilia, and at 
the same time prosecute the offender for a capital crime." 
(Id., Sec. 11.) 

" The first chapter of the law \^Aquilia^ subjects every 
man to an action who, through design or negligence, kills 
the slave or beast of another, and that the third part gives 
a remedy for any other damage, so occasioned." (Id., 
Sec. 14.) 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 249 

26. AN INJURY TO A SLAVE. 

** An injury is never considered as done to a slave, but 
through him to the master ; not, however, in the same 
manner as through a wife or child, as when some atro- 
cious injury is done to the slave, manifestly in despite of 
the master, as if any one should cruelly beat the slave of 
another ; but if a man should give ill language to a slave, 
or strike him with his fist, the master is entitled to action 
against him." (Institutes, TV, 4, 3.) 

ON THE PECULIUM. 

**The pra3tor hath also given actions de peadio against 
fathers and masters, who, although they were not legally 
bound by the contracts of their children and slaves, ought, 
in equality, to be bound to the extent of a peculium, 
which is, as it were, the patrimony and separate estate of 
a son, a daughter, a slave." (Institutes, IV, 6, 10.) 

27. LABILITY OF THE DUSTER FOR THE SLAVE. 

*' For any business negotiated by a slave acting under 
the command of his master, the prsetor will give an 
action against the master for the whole value of the 
transaction ; for, whoever contracts with a slave, is pre- 
sumed to have done it on a confidence in the master." 
(Institutes, IV, 7, 1.) 

28. NOXAL ACTIONS OF SLAVES. 

" Noxal actions are given on account of the offenses of 
slaves, as when a slave commits a theft or robbery, or 
does any damage or injury. And, when the master or 
owner of a slave is condemned upon this account, it is in 
his option either to pay the estimate of the damage done, 
or deliver up his slave as a recompense." (Institutes, 
IV, 8. See, also. Dig., IX, Tit. 4 ; and Cod., Ill, Tit. 41.) 



250 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

** Noxa is the slave or the offender. Noxia is the 
offense, whether theft, damage, rapine, injury." (Id., 
8ec. 1.) 

*' It is reasonably permitted to the master to deliver up 
the offending slave, for it would be unjust to make the 
master liable beyond the body of the slave himself." 
(Id., Sec. 2.) 

" No real actions follow the person ; thus, the master 
is liable while the slave belongs to him. If the slave 
become subject to a new master, then he becomes liable ; 
but if the slave be manumitted, he may be prosecuted by 
direct action ; and the noxoe deditio is extinguished. 
But an action which was at iirst direct, may afterward 
become noxal ; for if a freeman, guilty of malfeasance, 
become a slave — and our first book shows in what cases 
this may happen — then the direct action against the slave 
is changed into a noxal action against the master." (Id., 
Sec. 5.) 

** Although a slave commit a malfeasance against his 
master, yet no action can arise, for no obligation can 
arise between a master and his slave. And, although a 
slave hath passed out of your power, you can not sue 
him, neither can a slave who hath been aliened or manu- 
mitted, bring any action against his late master." 
(Id., Sec. 6.) 

III. As we have given from the Institutes of Justinian, 
collated with the other parts of the civil law, all the laws 
on slavery in the Institutes, we will now present a 
brief digest of these laws, so that the reader may perceive 
clearly in connection their different parts, and thus 
be the better prepared to judge of their character. 

1. The first division of persons is into freemen and 
slaves. (Institutes, I, 3; Dig., I, Tit. 5.) Freedom is 
defined to be " the natural power of acting as we please, 
unless prevented by force or by law." (Institutes, I, 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 251 

3, 1.) Among free persons there are many differences, 
sucli as ingenui, Ubertl, and libertini ; but among slaves 
there is none, as they are all reduced to the lowest level. 
(Institutes, I, 3, 5.) A freeman is one born of free 
parents. But if the mother be free, and the father a 
slave, the child is free. (Institutes, I, 4 ; Cod., VII, 14.) 

2. Justinian thus defines : " Slavery is when one man 
is subject to the dominion of another, according to the 
law of nations, though contrary to natural right." (In- 
stitutes, I, 3, 2.) 

The following is a condensed view of the state of 
slavery in Rome, as drawn by Taylor : (Elem, Civ. 
Law, 429, from the Roman code ; Dig., Lib. L, Tit. 17, 
Law 32 and 209.) 

*' Slaves were held ^jro nullis, pro mortuis, pro quadru- 
pedibus ; nay, they were in a much worse state than any 
cattle whatsoever. They had no head in the state — no 
name, title, or register ; they were not capable of being 
injured, nor could they take by purchase or descent ; they 
had no heirs, and, therefore, could make no will, exclu- 
sive of what was called their peculium ; whatever they 
acquired was their master's ; they could not plead, nor be 
pleaded for, but were excluded from all civil affairs what- 
ever ; they could not claim the indulgence of absence, 
reipubUcm causa ; they were not entitled to the rights 
and considerations of matrimony, and, therefore, had 
no relief in case of adultery ; nor were they proper ob- 
jects of cognation or affinity, but of quasi-cognation 
only ; they could be sold, transferred, or pawned as goods 
or personal estate, for goods they were, and as such they 
were esteemed ; they might be tortured for evidence, and 
punished at the discretion of their lord, or even put to 
death by his authority." The quotations we have given 
from the civil law sustain this picture of it drawn by 
Dr. Taylor. 



252 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

3. As we have given the proper definition of slavery, 
and the picture of it as drawn from the Eoman law, let us 
now notice the various ways by which men became slaves. 

(1.) By war. Captives taken in war were sold. (In- 
stitutes, Lib. I, Tit. 3, L. 3. Also, Institutes, I, Tit. 23.) 
They were sold as belonging to the treasury, or dis- 
tributed among the soldiers by lot. In reference to the 
practice of selling prisoners with a crown on their heads, 
we find the expression sub corona venire, vendere, (Gall., 
VII, 4 ; Liv., V, 22 ; Cos. Bell, Gall., Ill, 16.) " After 
the fall of the Samnites, thirty-six thousand captives 
were sold as slaves, for two millions, thirty-three 
thousand pieces of brass. Lucretius, in the Volscian 
war, in one town, took four thousand prisoners. The 
Romans in the first Punic war took twenty thousand 
prisoners. Augustus having taken the Salassi, sold, as 
slaves, thirty-six thousand, of whom eight thousand were 
capable of bearing arms. Caesar, in the Gallic wars, 
took more than four hundred thousand prisoners." 

(2.) By kidnapping and commerce. The slave-trade 
began as early as the days of Joseph. Among the 
Egyptians, Cyrenians, and Carthaginians, the slave- 
trade flourished. They were chiefly drawn from the in- 
terior, where kidnapping was carried on as now. The 
Grecian Isles were leaders in this course, by a regular 
business of commerce and piracy united, depending 
greatly on kidnapping as supplying the resources. 

(3.) Some were horn slaves. They were born such of 
bond-women. (Institutes, I, 3, 5.) It became a maxim 
of common law, that the child follows the condition of 
the mother — Partus sequitur ventrem. 

(4.) By selling themselves. Free-born citizens some- 
times sold themselves for the sake of sharing the price. 
(Institutes, I, 3, 4.) This was permitted by a law of 
Claudius, about A. D. 32, though manifestly contrary to 



THE ROMAN LAAV ON SLAVERY. 253 

the general rule, that no man can change his condition 
hy his own authority. (Dig-, XL, Tit. 12, Law 37.) 
The person selling himself was required, 1. To be at least 
twenty years of age. (Dig., XL, 12, 7.) 2. With a 
certain knowledge of his birth and condition. (Dig., 
XL, Tit. 14 ; and Dig., XL, 12, 14.) 3. The purchaser 
must act hona fide. (Ibid., Laws 7, 16.) 4. The price 
was completely at his disposal. (Dig., XL, Tit. 12, L. 
1 and 5.) The Emperor Leo YI, Philesophus, between 
A. D. 886 and 908, the duration of his reign, abrogated 
this law of Claudius by his Novel. 59, and the reasons for 
the abrogation are that the law should be, in the place of 
a father, to protect, and the man is to be considered as in- 
sane who would change freedom for slavery, and such an 
act is, therefore, null and void. See the Constitution of 
Leo, in the 16th chapter, on the effects of Christianity on 
the Roman civil law. 

(5.) Some, from being free, became slaves by the oper- 
ation of certain law^s. " A freeman may become a slave." 
(Institutes, III, 20, 2.) 

Thieves were made slaves according to the twelve tables. 
" If the robbery be committed by day, and if the robber 
be taken in the act, let him be beaten with rods, and be- 
come the slave of him whom he robbed." (Table II, 
Law 2.) 

A free woman who cohabited with a slave might be 
reduced to the same condition with the slave. 

Under the empire the rule became established that per- 
sons condemned to death, to the mines, and to fight with 
wild beasts, lost their freedom, and their property was 
confiscated, so that they could make no will. (Dig., Lib. 
XXVIII, Tit. 1, Sec. 8.) But this was not the earlier 
law. 

By a constitution of Claudius, a freed-man who mis- 
conducted himself toward his patron was reduced toward 



254 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

his former state of slavery. (Suet. Claud., 25.) But 
this was not the law in the time of Nero. (Tac. Arm., 
XIII, 27.) Criminals of various classes were doomed to 
servitude, and deprived of citizenship. They were then 
termed servi poencB, and during the commonwealth were 
the property of the Republic. But this mode of enslav- 
ing was abolished by Justinian. 

(6.) By diminution. This is the change of a man's for- 
mer condition, and is threefold — the greater, the less, and 
the least. The greater is when the man loses both the 
right of a citizen and his liberty, such as those who be- 
come slaves of punishment, or freed-men for ingratitude 
to their patrons, and such as suffer themselves to be sold 
for the sake of sharing the price. The right of cognation 
is also lost. (Institutes, I, 16, Law 4 and 6.) In many 
instances freed-men might still be retained in a state of 
servitude bordering on slavery. (Institutes, II, 19, Sec. 
3 and 4.) 

4. Slaves are in the power of their masters. The mas- 
ters had the power of life and death over them, and what- 
soever the slave acquired belonged to the master. (Insti- 
tutes, I, 8, 1.) The slave had no personal rights. , In 
the legal sense he had no caput, no legal rights, no legal 
capacity, so that he could be sold, or bartered, or pawned 
at the pleasure of his master. Still, positive morality in 
the social life had its effects in meliorating the condition 
of the slaves. This — the right of life and death — contin- 
ued down to a late time, or to the end of the Republic. 
This power was gradually limited by the Lex Petronia, 
which forbade slaves to be arbitrarily punished, without 
the decision of a judge. By a constitution of Antoninus 
whoever carelessly killed his slave was punished as if he 
killed the slave of another. Justinian laid further restric- 
tions on cruel treatment. (Institutes, I, 8, 2 ; Dig., I, 6.) 
A constitution of Claudius enacted, that if a man exposed 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 255 

his infirm slaves, they should become free ; and the consti- 
tution also declared that, if they were put to death, the act 
should be murder. (Suet, Claud., 25.) It was also en- 
acted by Constantine, A. D. 334— Cod., Ill, Tit. 38, L. 
11 — that in sales of division of property, slaves, such as 
husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sis- 
ters, should not be separated. This was a Christian ele- 
ment, unknown to the real civil code of heathen Eome. 

5. Slaves can have no property. Whatever they have 
at any time acquired, by delivery, stipulation, donation, 
bequest, or by any other means, belongs to the master. 
(Inst., II, Tit. 9, L. 3.) The slaves, however, possessed 
as their private property the 'peculium, such as they ac- 
quired independently of the service they rendered to their 
masters. Still, even this was mostly under the control 
of their masters, and it could be seized by them as a mat- 
ter of right, though under some restrictions, more by cus- 
tom, however, than by law. (Institutes, II, 12 ; also II, 
Tit. 20, Sec. 2 ; and III, Tit. 29.) 

6. A slave can make no contracts. The law says, "A 
stipulation is also void if made with one who is under 
your power, or if he stipulate with you ; for a slave is 
incapable not only of entering into an obligation with 
his master, but of binding himself to any other person." 
(Institutes, III, Tit. 20, Sec. 6.) 

7. Slaves had no conmibmm, or marriage. Their union 
with a person of their own rank was called contubemmm. 
This name was also applied to other cases of unlawful 
connection. (Cod., II, 21, 4 ; Cod., V, 5, 3 ; Cod., V, 
5, 9 ; Cod., VI, 59, 9.) Hence, there was no process for 
adultery in favor of a slave. (Cod., IX, 9, 23 ; Dig., 
XL VIII, 5, 6.)" But though civil forms might be disre- 
garded among slaves, the laws of nature as to incestuous 
commerce w^ere held in full force, as it is said, "For 
although civil policy extinguish civil rights, yet over 



256 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

natural rights it has no such power." (Institutes, I, 15, 
3. See, also. Dig., XXIII, Tit. 2, L. 14, Sec. 2.) 

Concubinage is fully described in the last title of Di- 
gest XXV. It was entered into before witnesses, other- 
wise it became prostitution. (Dig., XXV, 7, 3.) The 
parties might dissolve the contract and cohabitation at 
pleasure. (Dig., XXV, 7, 1.) It did not admit of adul- 
tery. (Dig., XXV, 7, 3.) As marriages were discour- 
aged between officers of state in the provinces and the 
female inhabitants, they were permitted to take concu- 
bines in the provinces. (Dig., XXV, L. 5 ; Dig., XXIII, 
2, 38 and 57.) It was regulated by Constantine — Cod., 
V, 26 — and Justinian. (Nov., 18, 74 and 89.) 

The following from Ulpiran, collated with the notes of 
Gothofredus — Tit. 5, de his qui in 'potestate sunt — will give 
the exact view of marriage, according to Roman law : 
"Children born of lawful matrimony are in the power 
of their parents. It is a law of matrimony, if among 
those who contract the nuptials there is a marriage — con- 
nubium — and the male and female have the power, and 
each consent, if they are in their own power, or their par- 
ents, if in the power of parents. Marriage — connuhium — 
is the power of lawfully taking a wife. Roman citizens 
can contract marriage with Roman citizens, and with 
Latins or strangers, if it is granted. With slaves there 
is no marriage — connuhium.^'' On the foregoing Gotho- 
fredus remarks, confirming his notes with citations from 
various parts of the civil law : " W^hat is marriage — 
connuhium? It is this : The male ought to be of age, 
the female marriageable, or more than twelve years of 
age. Three things are required in matrimony : First, 
that those who contract are Roman citizens ; that they 
are of due age ; that there is a lawful consent, either by 
themselves, if they have the right, or by the consent of 
their parents.'* 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 257 

8. Slaves are transmitted by inheritance from parents 
to children, like other property. (Institutes, I, Tit. 19.) 

9. A slave can not be a witness legally. (Institutes, 
II, Tit. 10, Sec. 6; Nov. Just., 90, C. 6 ; Leonis Const. 
49.) But in those cases in which no other witness can 
be had, the testimony of a slave can be admitted — Dig., 
XXII, 7 ; Cod., IV, 20 — under certain restrictions. The 
reason for refusing the testimony was that they could not 
act independently, because they were slaves. 

10. A runaway slave — -fugitivus — could not be lawfully 
received or harbored ; for to conceal him was furtum — 
theft. The master was entitled to pursue him wherever 
he pleased, and it was the duty of all authorities to give 
him aid in recovering slaves. The rights of the mas- 
ter were in no wise affected by his running away. (Insti- 
tutes, III, 13, 3 ; Dig., XI, Tit. 4, De Fugitivis.) He 
that concealed him was, by law, pronounced and treated 
as fur, or thief. Is, qui fugitivum celavit, fur est. The 
secreter of a fugitive is liable to death also. (Cod., IX, 
20, 7.) 

11. An injury is never considered as done to a slave, 
but through him to the master — Institutes, IV, 4, 3 — and 
the master alone can seek and obtain redress. 

12. The state of slavery among the Romans was term- 
inated by manumission. It was also terminated by 
various positive enactments, either by way of reward to 
the slave or punishment to the master. The Senatus Con- 
sultum Silaniamim is an example of the former ; and va- 
rious subsequent constitutions gave freedom to slaves 
who discovered the perpetrators of certain crimes. (Cod. 
Theod., Tit. 21, C. 2.) After the establishment of Chris- 
tianity, liberty, under certain restrictions, could be ac- 
quired by becoming a monk or clergyman. (Novel., 5, 
C. 2 ; and Nov., 123, C. 17, 35.) Every individual mas- 
ter possessed the power of manumitting his slave, if he 

22 



258 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

chose to do so, and this manumission could be executed 
in several forms. 

Manumission was not heard of while slavery was un- 
known ; but -when slavery, in violation of the law of 
nature, was introduced by unjust human laws, and in- 
vaded liberty, the benefit of manumission became then a 
consequence. (Institutes, I, Tit. 5.) 

Manumission was effected by various ways. Cicero 
mentions three principal ones ; namely, by the census, by 
vindicta, and by will. The civil or Roman law enumerates 
twelve modes of emancipation, without giving a complete 
list. (Cod., YII, Tit. 6 and 7.) We will select the 
most usual modes of manumission, as it would be un- 
necessary for our purpose to trace all the various forms 
and circumstances, as they would not instruct our read- 
ers, seeing there are many legal distinctions which are 
unintelligible to most readers of our times, without much 
discussion. We will give the leading forms and the most 
important circumstances of each, avoiding obscure and 
intricate legal distinctions. • 

(1.) By the census. A man was said to be free by the 
census when his name was inserted in the censor's roll, 
with the approbation of his master at the public census. 

(2.) By the vindicta. This, perhaps, was the oldest 
form of manumission. It obtained its name from Vin- 
dicius, who made known the conspiracy of the Tarquins 
and was freed on that account. The form was as follows : 
The master, placing his hand upon the head of the slave, 
said in presence of the prfetor, "It is my will that this 
man should be free." The lictor, placing his staff" on 
the head of the slave, said, ** I pronounce this man to be 
free." Then followed congratulations from the master 
and others to the newly-freed man. (Dig-, XL, 2 ; Cod., 
YII,!.) 

(3.) By will or testament. The slave was freed either 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 259 

directly or by an express clause of the will, and it was 
left to the heir to effect the emancipation. Sometimes 
conditions were annexed, as the payment of a certain 
sum to the heir, serving the heir during youth, or for 
a number of years, and often, to some degree, during life. 
(Institutes, I, 5, 1 ; Dig., XL, Tit. 4 ; Cod., YII, Tit. 2.) 
(4.) By epistle. Slaves were also manumitted by letter, 
signed by the master in presence of five witnesses, or be- 
fore his friends, five witnesses being present at the decla- 
ration. (Institutes, I, 5, 1.) 

(5.) By adoption. The ancient lawyers of Rome de- 
cided that '* slaves" adopted by their masters obtain free- 
dom by their adoption ; and Justinian ordained, in pur- 
suance, that *' a slave whom any master nominates to be 
his son, in the presence of a magistrate, becomes free by 
such nomination, although it does not confer on him any 
filial relation." (Institutes, I, 11, 12.) 

(6.) By making him tutor. A man, by will, may as- 
sign his own slave to be a tutor, with liberty ; or if a 
slave be appointed tutor by ♦estament, without mention- 
ing liberty, he is tacitly enfranchised, and is therefore 
legally constituted a tutor. (Institutes, I, 14, 1.) 

(7.) A slave may be made free by being made an heir, 
and if he be made an heir without liberty, he becomes 
free of consequence. (Institutes, II, Tit. 14 ; also Tit. 
14, Sec. 1, 2, 3.) 

(8.) When Christianity prevailed, slaves could be 
emancipated in the face of the Church by imperial con- 
stitution. (Institutes, I, 5, 1.) By a constitution of 
Justinian, a master could set free both his wife who was 
a slave, and her children, so that they might enjoy free- 
dom as if born free. (Novel., 78, Cap. 3 and 4.) 

The foregoing comprise the principal modes of eman- 
cipation ; and yet there seems to have been great latitude 
given by the Roman law, and great encouragement to 



260 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

emancipation. If the fact of emancipation was duly 
tested, and the emancipation was not against the few 
restrictions, the mere form was a secondary matter. The 
twelve modes or cases given in the Codex — Lib. VII, Tit. 
6 and 7 — furnish the elucidation of this remark, as only 
few of them can he reduced to the modes mentioned 
above ; although they are all such as to require legal 
causes and proper testimonials, according to Roman law. 
13. There were, however, certain restrictions on eman- 
cipation. It could not take place in fraud of creditors. 
(Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 6 ; Dig., XL, 9 ; Cod., VII, 11.) 
A master under twenty years of age could not manumit 
without the approbation of his guardian or a court. (In- 
stitutes, I, 6, 4.) Augustus restrained the right of indis- 
criminate and unlimited manumission. A slave who 
was ill treated could compel the master to sell him to 
another. The power of life and death over slaves was 
first sought to be legally abolished by Adrian and Anto- 
ninus Pius. Constantine restrained the power of life 
and death over the slave. 

The freed-man, though legally and practically free, still 
retained a relation of dependence on his former master. 
He received, however, a name which showed he was a 
Roman citizen. He also wore the toga, the dress of the 
frse-born Roman. He was obliged to observe a respect- 
ful demeanor toward his former master, assist him in 
misfortune, and not sue him in law. Freed-men who 
had grossly violated these obligations were punished, and 
were sometimes again reduced to slavery. 

The freed-men, in certain periods of the Roman gov- 
ernment, were divided into the Dedititii, the Latini, and 
the Gives RomanL 

The Dedititii were those who were merely subjects of 
the Roman government. They were neither slaves, citi- 
zens, nor Latini. Their civil condition was that of a 



THE ROMAN LAW OX SLAVERY. 261 

conquered people, who did not individually lose tlieir 
freedom, but as a community had no political existence. 

The Latlni had not the connuhium, and were wanting 
in various characteristics belonging to a Roman citizen. 
But he could obtain citizenship in several ways. 

In considering the legal condition of the libertini, or 
freed-men, it is proper to remark that, though they might 
become cives Romani, their patrons had still certain rights 
over them. Their state did not allow them to make a 
will, nor take property under a will, nor of being named 
tutors to a will. They could take, however, by way of 
Jidei commissum. The sons of libertini were ingenui ; but 
they were sometimes taunted with their servile origin. 

Paternal power among the Romans extended to the 
life, death, or condition of the children and grandchil- 
dren. The father could also sell his children, and other- 
wise control them. (Institutes, I, Tit. 9 : Cod., VIII, 
Tit. 47.) 

The act of manumission created a new relation between 
the manumittor and the slave, which was analogous to 
that between father and son. The manumittor became, 
with respect to the freed-man, his patron, and the manu- 
mitted person became the Ubertus, or freed-man, of the 
manumittor. The word pati^onus — from patei' — indicates 
the nature of the relation. The freed-man became the 
client of the patron. He adopted the Gentile name of 
the patron. Cicero's freed-man, Tyro, was called M. 
Tullius Tyro. The patron, too, might punish him sum- 
marily for neglect of the duties of his station. A law 
was prepared in the time of Nero, and passed under the 
later Emperors, to authorize the patron for certain crimes 
to re-enslave the freed-man. The Lex ^lla Sentla gave 
the patron the right of prosecuting the freed-man for in- 
gratitude, Ut ingratum accusare. (Dig-j X.L, Tit. 9, L. 
30.) An ingratus was called llhertvs impius, as being 



262 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

deficient in piety. The freed-man could not, as a general 
rule, institute a capital charge against his patron. The 
freed-man was bound to support the patron and his chil- 
dren in case of necessity, and the management of his prop- 
erty and the tutelage of his children ; and if he refused, 
he was called ingratus — ungrateful. (Dig., XXXVII, Tit. 
14, L. 19.) 

There are many intricate points in the Koman law in 
reference to the relations of patrons and freed-men. The 
object we have in view renders it unnecessary to pursue 
the subject further. (See the various parts of the civil 
law on this subject, and Anthon's Dictionary of Greek 
and Roman Antiquities, on the words, Latinus, Lihertus, 
Dedititii, Patromi s . ) 

The reader will perceive the vast difference between the 
Roman laws on emancipation and those of our slave 
states. In most states an especial act of the Legislature 
is to be had for each proposed case. In other states, ex- 
patriation is mostly exacted. So that Christian America, 
in the matter of emancipation, is infinitely behind heathen 
Rome in awarding to men the exercise of natural rights. 

IV. We will now consider the actual condition of 
slaves as history depicts it, in connection with the legal 
enactments. 

1. Slaves existed at Rome from the first ; but they were 
not numerous under the kings and in the earlier ages of 
the Republic. The different trades were carried on chiefly 
by the clients of the patricians, and the small farms were 
cultivated by the proprietors and their children. But 
when new territories were conquered, and the patricians 
obtained large estates, slaves came into requisition. (Liv., 
V, C. 12.) Through wars and commerce slaves could 
easily be obtained at a cheap rate, and their number soon 
became so great that the poor freemen were thrown out 
of employ. Julius Ceesar endeavored, but in vain, to 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 263 

enact that of those who attend cattle, one-third should be 
freemen. (Suet. Jul., 42.) In Sicily, the great corn re- 
gion for Rome, the number of agricultural slaves was 
immense. , 

2. As to the number of slaves, we remark : Though 
large numbers were soon employed in agriculture, the 
number of those who served as personal attendants still 
continued to be small. But as luxury increased the num- 
ber of slaves also increased. Athenaeus states that some 
Romans possessed ten or twenty thousand slaves, or even 
more. Two hundred was no uncommon number for one 
person. From the time of Augustus to Justinian we 
may allow three slaves to one freeman. The free pop- 
ulation of Italy was then said to be 6,944,000, and the 
slaves 20,832,000, making a total of 27,776,000. Gib- 
bon says, " After weighing every circumstance which 
could influence the balance, it seems probable that there 
existed twice as many provincials as there were citizens 
of either sex and of every age, and that the slaves were 
at least equal in number to the free inhabitants of the 
Roman world. The total amount of this imperfect cal- 
culation would rise to about 120,000,000 of persons." 

According to this the number of slaves and free per- 
sons was each 60,000,000. 

3. Masters were responsible for the acts of their slaves ; 
yet the master acquired no rights against the slave in 
consequence of his derelicts. Other persons might obtain 
rights against a slave in consequence of his wrong acts, 
but their right could not be prosecuted against him till he 
was manumitted. The slave was protected against inju- 
ries from other persons. If the slave was killed, the mas- 
ter might either prosecute the killer for a capital offense, 
or sue for damages under the Lex AquUia. (Dig., IX, 
Tit. 2.) The master had also a prcHoria actio to twice 
the amount of the estimated damage against those who 



264 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

corrupted his slave, and led liim into bad practices. 
(Dig., XI, Tit. 3, Sec. 1, where the words of the text 
are given.) He had also an action against a j)erson 
who committed stuprum with his female slave. (Dig., 
XL VII, Tit. 10, Sec. 25.) In all these guards there was 
no reference to the benefit of the slave, but to the master 
only. 

4. On the punishment of slaves we refer to the laws 
and the history of facts, as recorded by ancient authors. 
The treatment of slaves varied greatly, according to the 
dispositions of their masters ; but they appear, on the 
whole, to have been treated with greater severity and cru- 
elty than among the Athenians. Originally the mastei- 
could use the slave as he pleased. Under the Republic 
the law does not seem to have j^rotected the person or life 
of the slave at all ; but the cruelty of masters was to 
some extent restrained under the empire. The general 
treatment of slaves, however, seems to have been but 
little affected by legislative enactments. In early times, 
when the number of slaves was small, they wei-e treated 
with more indulerence and more like members of the fam- 
ily. (Hor., Ep. II, 1, 162.) But Avith the increase of 
numbers and luxury the scene was changed. 

The obedience of slaves was enforced with severe disci- 
pline. The masters availed themselves of the latitude of 
the law in this respect to the utmost extent. One of the 
most easy punishments was their removal from the city 
to the country, where they were obliged to work in chains 
and fetters. (Plant. Mort., I, 1, 18.) They were fre- 
quently beaten with sticks, or scourged with the whip ; 
but these were so common as to create no sensation, as 
Chrysalus says. (Plant. Bacchid., I, 3, 131.) Runa- 
ways, who were also called fures — thieves — were branded 
on the forehead with a mark, or stigma, and were there- 
fore called notati, or inscripti. (Mort., VIII, 75, 9.) They 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 265 

were sometimes hung up by the hands with weights tied 
to their feet. (Plant. Asin., II, 2, 37, 38.) A blow with 
the hand was a ready discipline. (Juv., 9, 5.) If a slave 
spoke or coughed at a forbidden time he was flogged by a 
severe master. (Sen., Ep. 47.) The dress of Roman 
ladies when not duly adjusted by the slaves, gave occa- 
sion to severe correction on the slave's back. (Mort., Lib. 
II, Ep. 66.) Burning alive was resorted to, and Tertul- 
lian says it was first used for slaves alone. [Tertul. de 
anima, 1.) But it were endless to go through the varied 
modes which a cruel ingenuity invented to torture and 
keep in subjection the poor slaves. (See Bibl. Eepos. for 
1835, Vol. VI, pp. 422-424.) The laws which abolished 
the master's power of life and death were obeyed with 
great reluctance, and virtually repealed by an increase 
in inferior punishments. 

5. The principles of justice, however, comprised in the 
civil law, seem to have made their impression from time 
to time on the Roman mind, so as to produce enactments 
restraining the cruelties toward slaves. And though the 
remedy was not sufficient to cancel the evil, it was, at 
least, a pretext against the system. The first law in their 
favor was the lex Cornelia de siccariis, under the dictator- 
ship of Tulla, about eighty years before Christ, by which 
the killing even of a slave became punishable. (Dig-, 
XL VIII, Tit. 8.) The power of life and death was 
restrained by Claudius the successor of Caligula, about 
A. D. 43. (Dig., XL VIII, Tit. 8, Law 2.) Nero, in 
A. D. 61, by the Lex Petronia deprived masters of the 
power of sending their slaves to fight wild beasts at the 
public shows. The Emperor Adrian, about A. D. 120, 
prohibited generally cruel treatment toward slaves, and he 
banished Umbricia, a lady of quality, for five years, be- 
cause, for slight causes, she treated cruelly her slaves. An- 
toninus Pius, about A. D. 140, applied the lex Cornelia de 

23 



266 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

siccariis, especially to masters of slaves ; and tlie same 
law was strengthened by Severus, A. D. 195, and by Con- 
stantine. (Cod., IX, Tit. 14.) Slaves might always in- 
duce an investigation by flying to the statutes of the 
princes, according to the decision of Valentinian, Theo- 
dosius, and Arcadius, A. D. 386. (Cod., I, Tit. 25.) 
And Arcadius and Honorius, A. D. 397, ordained that 
all who fled to the churches were protected. (Cod., I, Tit. 
12.) Nevertheless, slaveholders who were ill-disposed, 
had no very effectual restraint on them in consequence of 
these restraining laws. Yet the prevalence of Christianity 
greatly relieved the slaves and procured for them the ces- 
sation of many cruelties, and the mitigation of most, as 
we shall see, when we come to consider the discipline of 
the primitive Church. 

6. The slave-trade of Rome was a large business. The 
traders called manganes were held in disrepute, and were 
distinguished from the merchants. The civil law de- 
scribes them thus: ''Men are not to be considered as 
merchandise ; on this account the traders are called man- 
ganes, or venal persons, but not merchants." Manganes 
non mercatores, sed venaliciarii appellati sunt. (Dig-, L, 
Tit. 16, Law 207.) The trade Avas lucrative, and great 
fortunes, then as now, were accumulated by it. The 
slave-dealers usually accompanied an army, and pur- 
chased the prisoners for a small sum, and sold them at 
advanced prices. The trader Thoranius, who lived in the 
time of Augustus, was well known. (Suet. Octav., 69; 
Macrob. Sat., II, 4.) Martial — VIII, 13 — mentions an- 
other great dealer in slaves, named Gargilianus. Slaves 
were sold at auction at Rome, and were exposed on scaf- 
folds, and exhibited for examination. Purchasers took 
care to have the slaves strij)ped naked in order to detect 
the defects which the dealers endeavored to conceal. 
Slaves of great beauty sold at extravagant prices. The 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 267 

characters of the slaves were written on scrolls and placed 
on their necks. 

7. The value of slaves varied with circumstances. At 
the camp of Lucullus slaves sold for four drachmae each. 
Under the empire, or on the increase of wealth and lux- 
ury, slaves brought a very high price. Beautiful slaves 
always sold highest. Slaves who brought a profit to the 
owners brought a high price. Literary men, doctors and 
stage-players, brought a high price. 

8. The customary allowance for a slave was a modius 
or peck of corn a week. Salt and oil were commonly 
allowed, and, occasionally, vinegar, salt-fish, and olives. 
They had daily a pint and a half of wine. Slaves near 
towns procured for themselves other necessaries and even 
luxuries. 

9. They were not permitted to wear the toga or citi- 
zen's gown and other badges of citizenship. In most 
other respects they were clothed like others, till Alexander 
Severus appointed a certain garb for them. This was 
soon abandoned, because it showed to the slaves the supe- 
riority of their numbers. 

10. Masters could work their slaves as many hours in 
the day as they saw fit, but they usually allowed them the 
holy days and festivals. The laborers on the great farms 
were shut up at night in an egaMulum, or Avork-house, 
resembling a prison. Each slave had a separate cell. 
Public holidays, amounting to about thirty in a year, 
were allowed them. 

11. There were, however, certain privileges awarded to 
slaves. They were permitted to follow any religion they 
pleased. Public slaves were employed about temples. 
The customary rights of burial were allowed them, be- 
cause death put an end to all human distinctions. It was 
the duty of the master to bury the slave. (Dig-, XI, Tit. 
7, Sec. 31.) At the festival of Saturn special indulgen- 



268 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

ces of speech and conduct were allowed tliem. But all 
such privileges and indulgences depended on the mere 
will of the master, and were never considered as a matter 
of right. 

12. Masters were often at great pains to teach slaves 
various occupations, and even accomplishments ; and 
instructors were chosen often for this purpose. The 
object of the education was the mere benefit of the mas- 
ter, and not the mental or moral culture of the slaves. 
There was, however, no law that prevented the instruc- 
tion of slaves in any branch of learning. The employ- 
ments of slaves, therefore, corresponded to all the profit- 
able pursuits in which the master could advantageously 
employ him. 

13. Slaves were divided into various classes. They 
were either public or private. Public slaves were those 
which belonged to the state or to public bodies, such as 
provinces, municipia, collegia, decuria, etc., or to the em- 
peror in his sovereign capacity, and employed in public 
duties, and not attached to his household or private 
estate. These were acquired by war or purchase. Public 
slaves of an inferior character were employed as rowers 
in the fleet and in the servile public occupations. (Dig., 
I, Tit. 5, Sec, 1.) 

A body of slaves belonging to one person were called 
familia. (Dig., L, Tit. 16, Sec. 40.) When there were 
many in one house they were frequently divided into 
decuria, or tens. But independent of this division they 
were divided into certain classes of a higher or lower 
rank, such as Ordinarii, Vulgares, Mediastirii, Quales- 
Quales. (Dig., XLVIT, Tit. 10, Sec. 15.) It is doubtful 
whether the literary slaves, or literati, were comprised in 
any of these classes. 

V. We may now take a survey of the evil nature and 
effects of Eoman slavery. The nature of the evil is man- 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 269 

ifest from the foregoing survey, and we need not dwell on 
it ; yet some of the evil effects may here be noticed. 

1. We may consider the condition of slaves in the 
latter days of the republic, and during the empire previ- 
ous to Constantine, as one of great hardship. Their lot 
was depending on the temper of their masters, not on the 
laws nor on humane and enlightened public opinion. 
Even the classical authors give mostly the fair side of 
their state, as they wrote mostly about household slaves, 
whose condition was far above those in the country. The 
sufferings from the egastula of the country are rarely 
noticed. Slaves were valued only as they represented 
money. Hortensius cared less for the health of his slaves 
than for that of his fish. It was a question, in time of a 
storm, whether slaves, horses, or other freight should be 
cast into the sea to save the ship. 

2. The insurrections of the slaves, from time to time, 
were constant causes of alarm. The days of revolt were 
lessened from the close supervision over the slaves — from 
their ignorance, and the impossibility of harmony among 
them. As many were emancipated, and all might be, 
this led the more intelligent to wait their time with some 
degree of patience, yet there were several insurrections 
which greatly disturbed Rome. 

As early as 458 before Christ Appius Herdonius cre- 
ated a revolt among the slaves. (Liv., Ill, C. 15.) In 
the year 415 before Christ it was announced that the 
servile bands had conspired against the city in several 
places. (Liv., IV, 45.) In the year 271 before Christ 
twenty-five slaves were crucified for a conspiracy. (Liv., 
XXI, 33.) In 184 B. C. a great servile commotion 
arose in Apulia- — Liv., XXXIX, 29 — in which seven 
thousand men were condemned. In 185 B. C. a great 
insurrection of slaves happened in Sicily, amounting to 
seventy thousand, of whom twenty thousand are said to 



270 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

have fallen in tlie defeat. The famous servile war in the 
time of Crassus and Pompey, occasioned the slaughter of 
one hundred and five thousand slaves, besides many- 
others not enumerated. The history of the insurrections 
of slaves in Italy would fill a volume. 

Besides these insurrectionary and political troubles, 
slavery was the parent of many moral and social evils. 
We will place this before our readers, from the pen of 
Mr. George Bancroft, former Secretary of the Navy : 

«3. EOilAN SLAVERY IN THE RURAL DISTRICTS. 

*' When Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, on his way to 
Spain to serve in the army, before Numantia traveled in 
Italy, he was led to observe the impoverishment of the 
great body of citizens in the rural districts. Instead of 
little farms, studding the country with their pleasant 
aspect, and nursing an independent race, he beheld nearly 
all the lands of Italy engrossed by large proprietors, and 
the plow was in the hands of the slave. In the early 
periods of the state, Cincinnatus at work in his field was 
the model of patriotism ; agriculture and war had been 
the labor and office of freemen ; but of these, the greater 
number had now been excluded from employment by the 
increase of slavery, and its tendency to confer the ex- 
clusive possession of the soil on the few. The palaces of 
the wealthy towered in the landscape in solitary grandeur ; 
the plebeians hid themselves in miserable hovels. De- 
prived of the dignity of freeholders, they could not even 
hope for occupation ; for the opulent land-owner preferred 
rather to make use of his slaves, whom he could not but 
maintain, and who constituted his family. Excepting 
the small number of the immeasurably rich, and a feeble 
but constantly-decreasing class of independent husband- 
men, poverty was extreme. The King of Syria had rev- 
erenced the edicts of the Eoman envoys, as though they 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 271 

had been the commands of Heaven ; the rulers of Egypt 
had exalted the Romans above the immortal gods, and 
from the fertile fields of Western Africa, Masinissa had 
sent word that he was but a Roman overseer. Yet a 
great majority of the Roman citizens, noAV that they had 
become conquerors of the world, were poorer than their 
forefathers, who had extended their ambition only to the 
plains around Rome. 

«4. INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY ON FREE LABOR. 

** Philanthropy, when it contemplates a slaveholding 
country, may have its first sympathies excited for the 
slaves ; but it is a narrow benevolence which stops there. 
The needy freeman is in a worse condition. The slave 
has his task, and also his home and his bread. He is the 
member of a wealthy family. The indigent freeman has 
neither labor, nor house, nor food ; and, divided b}^ a 
broad gulf from the upper class, he has neither hope nor 
ambition. He is so abject that even the slave despises 
him. For the interest of the slaveholder is diametrically 
opposite to that of the free laborer. The slaveholder is 
the competitor of the free laborer, and by the lease of 
slaves takes the bread from his mouth. The wealthiest 
man in Rome was the competitor of the poorest free car- 
penter. The patricians took away the business of the 
sandal-maker. The existence of slavery made the opulent 
owners of bondmen the rivals of the poor — greedy after 
the profits of their labor, and monopolizing those profits 
through their slaves. In every community where slavery 
is tolerated, the poor freeman will always be found com- 
plaining of hard times. 

"5. INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY ON DOilESTIC LIFE. 

" The great servile insurrection was designed to effect 
the emancipation of slaves, and both were unsuccessful. 



272 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

But God is just, and his laws are invincible. The social 
evil next made its effects apparent on the patricians, and 
began with silent but sure influence to corrupt the virtue 
of families, and even to destroy domestic life. Slavery- 
tends to diminish the frequency of marriages in the class 
of masters. In a state where emancipation is forbidden, 
the slave population will perpetually gain in relative 
numbers. We will not stop to develop the three or four 
leading causes of this result— pride and the habit of 
luxury — the facilities of licentious gratification — the cir- 
cumscribed limits of productive industry — some of which 
causes operate exclusively and all of them principally on 
the free. The position is certain, and is universal ; no 
where was it more amply exemplified than in Eome. 
The rich preferred the dissoluteness of indulgence to mar- 
riage ; and celibacy became so general, that the aristoc- 
racy was obliged by law to favor the institution which, 
in a society where all are free, constitutes the solace of 
labor and the ornament of life. A Roman censor, in an 
address to the people, stigmatized matrimony as a 
troublesome companionship, and recommended it only 
as a patriotic sacrifice of private pleasure to public duty. 
The depopulation of the upper class was so considerable, 
that the waste required to be supplied by emancipation ; 
and repeatedly there have been periods when the majority 
of the Romans had once been bondmen. It was this 
extensive celibacy and the consequent want of succession 
that gave a peculiar character to the Roman laws relating 
to adoption. 

"6. INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY ON CIVIC VIRTUE. 

** If a mass of slaves could, at any moment, on break- 
ing their fetters, find themselves capable of establishing a 
liberal government — if they could at once, on being 
emancipated, or on emancipating themselves, appear pos- 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 273 

sessed of civic virtue, slavery would be deprived of more 
than half its horrors. But the institution, while it binds 
the body, corrupts the mind. The outrages which men 
commit when they first regain their freedom, furnish the 
strongest argument against the condition which can ren- 
der human nature capable of such crimes. Idleness, and 
treachery, and theft are the vices of slavery. The fol- 
lowers of Spartacus, when the pinnacles of the Alps were 
almost within their sight, turned aside to plunder ; and 
the Roman army was able to gain advantage when the 
fugitive slave was changed from a defender of personal 
liberty into a plunderer. 

"7. INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY ON PUBLIC MORALS. 

"In like manner the effect of slavery became visible 
on public morals. Among the slaves, there was no such 
thing as the sanctity of marriage ; dissoluteness was 
almost as general as the class. The slave was ready 
to assist in the corruption of his master's family. The 
virtues of self-denial were unknown. But the picture of 
Roman immorality is too gross to be exhibited. Its 
excess can be estimated from the extravagance of the 
reaction. When the Christian religion made its way 
through the oppressed classes of society, and gained 
strength by acquiring the affections of the miserable 
whose woes it solaced, the abandoned manner of the 
cities excited the reproof of fanaticism. When domestic 
life had almost ceased to exist, the universal lewdness 
could be checked only by the most exaggerated eulogies 
of absolute chastity. Convents and nunneries grew up 
at the time when more than half the world were excluded 
from the rites of marriage, and were condemned, by the 
laws of the empire, to promiscuous indulgence. Vows 
of virginity were the testimony which religion bore 
against the enormities of the age. Spotless purity could 



274 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

alone fitly rebuke the sliamefulness of excess. As in. 
raging diseases the most violent and nnnatiiral remedies 
need to be applied for a season, so the transports of en- 
thusiasm sometimes ajDpear necessary to stay the infection 
of a moral pestilence. Thus riot produced asceticism ; 
and monks, and monkish eloquence, and monastic vows, 
were the protest against the general de25ravity of man- 
ners." 

VI. We will here adduce some of those great legal and 
moral principles of justice in the Roman code which are 
at variance with the system of Roman slavery, and with 
the legal principles on which it is founded. These have, 
or ought to have, the same weight in forming laws, that 
postulates and axioms have in geometry, or the fixed 
principles of any art or science have in discussions on 
the arts and sciences to which they relate. 

1. Without going over the entire range of the civil 
law we will adduce those we find in the Institutes of 
Justinian, which are an abridgment of the Pandects and 
the Code, and contain the leading elements of the Roman 
law. Although these are already cpioted as they occurred 
in the selections w^e have given from the Institutes, we 
will here place them in juxtaposition, so that we may at 
once see their force and meaning. 

** Justice is the constant and perpetual disposition to 
render to every man his due." (Institutes, Lib. I, 
Tit. 1.) 

The object of the science of law is what is ** just and 
unjust." (Institutes, I, 1, 1.) 

"The precepts of the law are, to live honestly, to 
hurt no one, and to give every one his due." (Institutes, 
I, 1, 3.) 

"Liberty, from which we are denominated free, is the 
natural power of acting as we please, unless prevented 
hy force or by the law." (Institutes, I, 3, 1.) 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 275 

"Captivity and slavery are contrary to the laAv of na- 
ture ; for by that law all men are born free." (Institutes, 
Lib. I, Tit. 2, L. 2.) 

** All men, by the law of nature, are born free." (In- 
stitutes, I, 5.) 

" Slavery is contrary to natural right." (Institutes, 
I, 3, 2.) 

" Although civil policy may extinguish civil rights, 
yet over natural rights it has no such power." (Insti- 
tutes, I, 16.) 

'' No length of time will be sufficient to found a pre- 
scription ; as when a man holds a free person as a slave, 
a thing sacred or religious, or a fugitive slave." (Insti- 
tutes, II, 6, 1.) 

" Freedom once obtained shall not afterward be re- 
voked." (Institutes, III, 13, 5.) 

2. In connection with the foregoing, drawn from the 
Institutes, we will give the following reguloR juris an- 
tiqui — rules of ancient law — as they are found among the 
collection of two hundred and eleven rules at the close 
of the Digest or Pandects, Lib. I, Tit. 17. As these are 
few and short, and the Latin very expressive, we will give 
both the Latin and our translation of these rules, or legal 
maxims, or acknowledged first princijDles, which are in 
force in all courts in which justice and equity have sway. 

Rule 20. " Quotiens dubia interpretatio libertatis est, 
secundum libertatem respondendum est." " Whenever 
there is a doubtful interpretation about liberty, the decis- 
ion is to be in favor of liberty." 

Rule 32. *' Quod attinet ad jus civile, servi pro nuUis 
habentur ; non tamen et jure naturali : quia, quod ad jus 
naturale attinet, omnes homines ^quales sunt." " Slaves 
are estimated pro nullis, [as nothing,] as it respects civil 
right, but not by natural right, because, as it concerns 
natural rights, all men are equal." 



276 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

Eule 90. ''In omnibus qiiidem, maxime tamen in jure 
sequitas spectanda sit." *' In all things, especially those 
of civil right, equity is to be observed.'* 

Eule 106. ''Libertas in£estimabilis res est." ''Liberty 
is a thing most to be esteemed." 

Eule 122. " Libertas omnibus rebus favorabilior est ;" 
or, "Favorabilis semper libertas." "Liberty in all things 
is more favorable than slavery;" or, ''Liberty is always 
favorable." 

Eule 146. " Quod quis, dum servus est, egit : proficere 
libero facto not potest." " Whatever a person has done 
while a slave, he can not profit by it when he becomes 
free." 

Eule 206. " Jure naturae £equum est, nominem cum alte- 
rius detrimento et injuria fieri locupletiorem." "By the 
law of nature it is just that no one, by the loss or injury 
of another, should become richer." 

Eule 209. " Servitutem mortalitati fere comparamus." 
" We may almost compare slavery to death." 

3. We will now show how these elementaiy principles 
of natural law, of justice, and of liberty in the Eoman 
civil code conflict with the system of Eoman slavery as 
established by the statutes of the Eoman law. 

According to the civil law, the law of nature is of su- 
preme authority, and civil law has no power over it ; yet 
Eoman slavery is in direct conflict with the law of nature, 
and is in opposition to its decisions. 

Slavery is contrary to the law of nature or to natural 
right ; yet the Eoman code, through the viciousness of 
men, has established slavery, contrary as it is to natural 
law and the principles of right in its own body of law. 

All men are born free ; yet, in opposition to this law 
of nature, the common law maxim obtained, that the 
child follows the condition of the mother ; so that if the 
mother be a slave, the child is also a slave. 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 277 

Justice renders to every man his due. Its object is 
wliatever is just and riglit. Slavery deprives men of 
their due, such as personal liberty, personal security, and 
the pursuit of happiness. It also infringes on the princi- 
ples of what is just and right, and introduces injustice 
and wrong in treating men as slaves. 

The precepts of justice are to live honestly, to hurt no 
one, and render to all their due. But the precepts of 
slavery teach practices dishonorable to man, as exhibited 
in the slave system. It injures men in their persons, 
property, and good name, in making them slaves and 
treating them as such. It withholds from men their 
proper rights of liberty, security, and happiness. 

** Liberty is the natural power to act as we please, un- 
less prevented by force or law." Slavery divests of this 
liberty, so that its subjects can not act according to their 
own wills, but according to the will of others. To de- 
prive persons of libeily there is no recurrence to justice 
or right, but to force or violence ; or, which is the same, 
by laws that are enforced with the entire power of the 
army, navy, and municipal power of the state, compris- 
ing also the judicial, legislative, and administrative pow- 
ers of all civil officers. 

** No length of time can give a prescriptive right to 
enjoyment of a thing unjustly acquired." This is not 
so with slavery. Long possession is a plea in the slave 
code. 

In all doubtful matters about liberty, decisions are to 
be on the side of liberty. This is not so, at least in prac- 
tice, in the slave code. 

"All men are equal by natural law and right." This 
is the principle adopted by Jefferson in the Declaration 
of Independence, and it was the boast of the Roman law. 
Slavery in all its codes, whether Egyptian, Grecian, Ro- 
man, or American, ignores this great first truth, though 



278 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

it requires no argument to establish it, it being a moral 
and legal maxim incontrovertible in its principle. 

*' Liberty is always favorable in all things." This law 
maxim was overlooked by the civil code of Rome, first 
admitting and then legalizing slavery. 

"A freed person can derive no benefit from what he 
did while a slave." The disabilities of slavery, even 
when a man is emancipated, follows him to the end of 
his life. 

" Slavery may be almost compared to death." The 
Roman code considered slaves as nulli, mortui, quadru- 
pedes — as nothing, dead, beasts. 

The great moral, legal principles of justice and right 
in the Roman code condemned the system which was 
established under its statutes ; or, in other words, the 
statutory laws w^hich established slavery were at variance 
with the constitutional principles of justice and right in 
the Roman civil law. It is the same with the United 
States and every slave state ; those laws which establish 
or tolerate slavery are in opposition to the great princi- 
ples of justice in the Declaration of Independence, the 
Constitution of the United States, and the constitutions 
of all the states, wdiether free or slave states. 

YII. It remains now to present a comparison between 
the Roman and American codes on slavery, and point out 
wherein they agree and wherein they differ. 

1. There are several points in which the two systems 
agree. 

(1.) In the common principles of the system they are 
agreed. These may comprise, as principal, depriving hu- 
man beings of their natural rights, of personal liberty, 
personal security, and the pursuit of happiness. They 
agree in giving the master the complete control over the 
slave, so as to make him property, deprive him of mar- 
riage, and degrade him, mentally and bodily, in his social. 



THE ROMAN LAW ON SLAVERY. 279 

civil, and ecclesiastical relations. In these respects there 
is a most perfect agreement between the slave codes of 
Rome and the United States. 

(2.) Both codes adopt principles subversive of slavery. 
That all men are created free and equal is taught by both 
codes, and other great principles of justice in accordance 
with them. And some of the American principles are 
directly taken from the civil law, as will be seen by those 
who will examine the extracts we have given from the 
civil code. Hence, neither system can be supported with- 
out nullifying the great principles of justice and right 
contained in their respective codes. 

2. There are also some respects in which the two codes 
materially differ. We will mention the following : 

(1.) We have no statute or recognized custom of the 
Roman law by which the slave was forbidden the use of 
letters. Although no provision was formally made for 
his instruction, there was no prohibition by which he was 
debarred from the pursuit of any branch of knowledge 
which his circumstances enabled him to pursue. It was 
reserved for our Christian country, in nearly all the slave 
states, to forbid and prevent slaves from learning or from 
improving their minds. Here is a barbarism in a Chris- 
tian country unknown in a heathen. 

(2.) Our laws prohibit emancipation. In some of the 
states the few cases occurring must be by sjDCcial legis- 
lation for the specified cases. In the border states, where 
emancipation is allowed by conformity to the statutes, 
the freed person must leave the state, and the mode of 
procedure is both intricate and vexatious. In heathen 
Rome, as we have seen, every one was at liberty to set 
his slaves free for any reason he saw fit, and the restric- 
tions were so few that, in almost all cases, emancipation 
might be easily effected. Our slave laws pay no regard 
to the conscientious scruples of masters, but coerce them 



280 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

to retain tlieir slaves whether they will or no ; and in en- 
deavoring to relieve themselves from the embarrassment, 
good men are restrained with oppressive restraints, in- 
fringing on the sacred rights of conscience. 



THE NEW TESTAMENT. 281 



CHAPTER X. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

1. When our Savior appeared, slavery reigned through- 
out the whole Roman empire, which then embraced the 
civilized world and much of the barbarous portions of it. 
Under the first Csesars slavery reached its hight of enor- 
mity. No jDart of the empire, except Judea, was free 
from the evil. " The Sicilian dungeons were full. Medi- 
ans, Mgesians, Bithynians, were driven in crowds to the 
Roman metropolis. Men-stealers were on the alert in 
the fastnesses of the African Troglodytes. The voice of 
the slave auctioneer was heard, early and late, at Corinth 
and Delos. From Britain to Parthia, and from the 
woods of Sweden to the great African desert, the cries 
of the bondman went uj^ to heaven." (Biblical Repos- 
itory for 1835, p. 428.) From one-half to two-thirds 
of the people of Rome and its provinces were slaves. 

2. In Judea slavery did not exist before it came under 
the Roman Government ; and even then it does not seem 
to have been introduced in any formal way. Yet that 
there were some slaves in possession of the civil func- 
tionaries of Rome is pretty certain. The resident Ro- 
mans doubtless brought with them their slaves, as a part 
of their domestic arrangement. King Agrippa exhibited 
at one time, in Judea, seven hundred pairs of slaves as 
gladiators. (Joseph. Hist., 19.) We find in the history 
of the New Testament two centurions who had servants, 

or slaves, in all probabilitv, as waiters. One is men- 

24 



282 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

tioned by our Lord — Matt, viii, 5-13 — whose servant our 
Lord healed. The other is mentioned in Acts x, xi, who 
had devout soldiers, or servants, as waiters. 

There was no very express mention of slavery in the 
Gospels, although there are allusions and references to it. 
The message of our Lord was first to the Jews, and as 
they had no slaves he did not come in contact with the 
system in ministering to them. Besides, as Paul was the 
apostle to the Gentiles at large, though Peter opened the 
door to them, we have in the Pauline teachings, in regard 
to slavery, slaves, and slaveholders, the inspired instruc- 
tions that are to govern the Church. And as Paul was 
the apostle to the Gentiles, and a free-born Koman citi- 
zen, it was fitting that he should give to the Gentiles the 
Christian instructions adapted to them which he actually 
did, a full digest of which we will present in future pages. 

The state of the question here seems to be briefly thus : 

1. As slavery had never been permitted by the Jewish 
law in the Hebrew commonwealth, our Savior never came 
into contact with the system among his Jewish brethren. 

2. The incidental reference to it in regard to the centu- 
rions did not bring the subject before him. 3. And the 
legal or Christian teaching on this was reserved for Paul, 
as the future history plainly shows. 

It is proper, however, further to remark on this subject, 

(1.) Nothing can be inferred, from our Lord's silence 
on the subject, in favor of slavery. Are we to infer that 
he approved of the sports of the amphitheater at Rome, 
of the conflicts of gladiators, fighting with w^ild beasts, 
the scenes of the Saturnalia, the worship of the Acropolis 
at Corinth, because he was silent in regard to them ? 

(2.) He never uttered any thing that can be construed 
in favor of slavery ; and its advocates find no utterance 
of his to support the system. 

(3.) There are fundamental principles in the teachings I 



THE NEW TESTAMENT. 283 

of our Savior which are opposed to the whole system of 
slavery, and which are violated in perpetuating slavery, 
as we shall have occasion to show. 

3. Both Christ and his apostles expressly condemn the 
practice of human slavery as a great sin. 

Our Lord solemnly reaffirmed the Levitical moral law 
of Moses. (Matt, v, 17, 18; Luke xvi, 17.) And the 
moral law condemns slavery in all its constituent parts. 

The apostles also pronounced the same condemnation 
hy their similar ratification and confirmation of the moral 
law. (See Rom. iii, 31; vii, 12; x, 4 ; Gal. iii, 24; 
1 Tim. i, 8-12.) The whole scope of their teaching fully 
shows this. 

After such repeated ratifications of the moral law, there 
was no necessity that each of the specific crimes should 
he enumerated. Hence, the mode of illustration was 
mostly used in the New Testament, in reference to the 
Mosaic code, as in the case of man-stealers, or slave-deal- 
ers — 1 Tim. i, 10 — who are considered, morally, as in 
the same class with liars, perjured persons, *' and if there 
he any other thing which is contrary to sound doctrine." 
That they did not condemn slavery hy 7iame is most 
true, hecause, we sup^DOse, there was no one word in the 
Greek language which as definitely signifies slavery as in 
our language. At any rate, this was not the chosen mode 
of Christ and his apostles, although they took a more 
effectual and plainer method, hy forbidding all the con- 
stituent elements of slavery, and enjoining those moral 
observances that are destructive of it. (See Sinfulness 
of American Slavery, hy the author of this volume, I, 
310-348.) 

4. The law of love is against slavery. This was given 
to the Hebrews in these words : " Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord." Lev. xix, 18. 
This law is repeated by our Lord. (Matt, xxii, 39.) It 



284 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

requires masters to render a just equivalent to their serv- 
ants ; but slavery refuses to do this. " Love worketh no 
ill to his neighbor." This is not true in regard to slav- 
ery. (Id., I, 275.) 

5. The golden rule prohibits slavery. *' Therefore, all 
things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, 
do ye even so to them ; for this is the law and the proph- 
ets." Matt, vii, 12. No one under the influence of 
this rule would make a slave, or continue another in that 
state, nor would he willingly subject himself and children 
to that state. (Id., I, 278-280.) 

6. The brotherhood of man, as laid down in the New 
Testament, is against slavery. *' One is your master, or 
leader, and all ye are brethren." Matt, xxiii, 8. To 
apply the term brethren to those who are slaves, is a per- 
version of language. The very word brother implies 
father, and son, and endearing, kindred relationship. 
Slavery confesses no father, nor brother, nor sister — not 
even a mother, except as a person to give the title to the 
property of the progeny, as a chattel. The Christian 
brotherhood is totally at variance with the illegitimacy 
of slavery, which knows no father, brother, or sister, in 
their proper acceptations. Cognation, agnation, or affin- 
ity, is totally disowned by slavery, as slaves are all spu- 
7'ii, or bastards, or apatres, without fathers. 

7. There is, indeed, an equality in Christianity at vari- 
ance with the inequality of slavery. *' Neither be ye 
called master, [leader,^ for one is your master, even 
Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your 
servant, and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be 
abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be ex- 
alted." Matt, xxiii, 10-12. The Declaration of In- 
dependence declares, "All men are created free and 
equal." The Roman law, when uttering the principles 
of justice, declares, ** All men, from the first, were born 



THE NEW TESTAMENT. 285 

free;" and elsewhere,* "All men are born equal." In 
Christianity there is neither Greek nor Jew, bond nor 
free; but all are one in Christ. (Col. iii, 11. See the 
author on Slavery, I, 307.) 

8. Such distinctions of inequality as slavery includes 
are forbidden in the New Testament. " Ye know that 
the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, 
and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 
But it shall not be so among you ; but whosoever will be 
great among you, let him be your minister ; and whoso- 
ever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; 
even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, 
but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." 
Matthew xx, 25-28. The dominion of the Gentiles is 
identical with the dominion of slavery. Therefore, the 
domination of slavery, which reduces persons to things 
and to property, is at war with Christianity. While 
Christianity admits the official positions necessary in 
Church and state, it excludes from the one and the other 
the servility of slavery, and in its place our holy religion 
establishes the proper equality of the human family, both 
in Church and state, without interfering with the just ex- 
ercise of civil and Church officers. The necessary des- 
potism of the slave master, and the degradation of the 
slave, are at war with the spirit and right practice of our 
holy religion, which places men on the common platform 
of Christian equality and brotherhood. 

9. The redemption of our race is antagonistic to slav- 
ery. Because the Israelites were redeemed by the power 
of God, slavery was prohibited forever among the He- 
brews. (Lev. XXV, 42.) And Paul declares that slavery 
is opposed to Christ's redemption : " Ye are bought with 
a price, do not become the slaves of men." 1 Cor. 
vii, 23. Civil slavery is unbecoming the freed-man 
of Christ: ** For ye are bought with a price; therefore, 



286 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

glorify God in your body and spirit, wliich are God's.'* 
1 Cor. vi, 20. The privileges of redemption elevate men 
to the high moral station of " kings and priests unto 
God." With the exercises of such stations slavery con- 
tinually interferes. In this light the primitive Christians 
viewed the subject, and acted accordingly. Hence, Con- 
stantine the Great, in 330, made a decree that no Jew or 
pagan could retain a Christian as a slave. (Cod., Lib. 
I, Tit. Ne Christianum.) The three sons of Constantine, 
Gregory the Great, the Council of Toledo enacted sim- 
ilar laws. 

10. The great Gospel jubilee, prophesied of by Isaiah, 
before Christ 698, and with which our blessed Savior 
opens his great mission, pronounces the final overthrow 
of slavery, and all other such evils, through the influence 
and operations of the Gospel in the salvation of men, 
first from sin, and then, as a result, deliverance from 
slavery and other evils. This glorious announcement is 
in the following words : " The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to 
the poor ; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, 
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of 
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Luke iv, 
18, 19. 

Our blessed Savior here opens his ministry, and in 
general terms proclaims his mission. On this we make 
the following observations : 

The great and first object in view was the salvation of 
the soul, by the Gospel as the means, through the re- 
demption of Christ and the agency of the divine Spirit. 
Thus the hroken-hearted sinner, enlightened by the truth, 
was bound up and saved from the darkness, guilt, power, 
and pollution of sin. The poor are mentioned because 
they composed the greater part of the human race ; and as 



THE NEW TESTAMENT. 287 

they were the most needy there was the utmost fitness in 
commencing with them. Thus, when they became en- 
lightened, purified, and elevated by Christianity, the way 
M'-as prepared for their deliverance from slavery, and all 
degrading evils and oppressions. In regard to slavery, 
the Gospel provides, first, by removing the causes of 
slavery ; and, secondly, by removing the slavery that 
exists, after the usual causes of it are removed. 

First. The Gospel removes the causes of slavery, and 
hence it is an extirpator of it, by destroying its roots or 
seeds, or living germs. We mention the following, and 
we substantiate them as matters of fact established by 
historical proofs that can not be denied : 

Poverty, in ancient and modern times, has been one of 
the great sources of slavery. Because many men were 
poor, as they were especially in all heathen countries, 
they sold themselves and their families in order to obtain 
a living, or to discharge debts. The remedy of the Gos- 
pel here was indirect, yet efficient. When the masses 
became enlightened and moralized by the Gospel, they 
became industrious, intelligent, avoided wasting sins, 
saved their earnings, and rose above poverty, so that they 
were not compelled now to sell themselves to obtain a 
subsistence. And any j)Oor Christians, who, by provi- 
dential circumstances, were poor, were provided for by the 
benevolence of their fellow-Christians. It was the lead- 
ing spirit of primitive Christianity. ** Ye are bought 
with a price, do not become the slaves of men." "If 
thou canst, [not mayest,] or art able, or hast it in thy 
power to be made free, use freedom," not slavery. It 
was the watchword of early Christianity — Let no one 
bought with the blood of Christ, if possible, either be- 
come or continue a slave, if he can secure, lawfully, his 
freedom. This was the common sentiment and practice 
of the first Churches of Christ. This cut off one princi- 



288 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

pal source of the slave traffic. This effect of Christianity, 
raising the multitudes above the pressure of poverty, cut 
off the principal source of slavery. Were the Africans 
Christians, they would not sell their children or friends 
for slaves, and the African trade would cease at once. 

Another source of slavery in heathen lands, since wars 
began, was to sell the captives taken In war, and make 
slaves of them. Through the influence of Christian 
nations, imbued with Christian principles, in the place 
of selling the captives, the practice was established of 
sending them back to their own country for a redemption 
price ; and thus, though slowly, yet surely, Christianity, 
in its whole range, has cut off this source of slavery. 
Our Lord's commission comprises this literally, "To 
proclaim liberty to the captives." It were useless to 
quote historical facts to show how literally this was ful- 
filled. And we can not allow that this phrase meant 
spiritual liberty, but civil liberty, as the effect of the mis- 
sion of Christ. For our Lord uses here the very terms 
of the Roman law on slaverv. " Slaves are denominated 
servi, from the practice of our generals to sell their cap- 
tives, and thus preserve — servare — and not slay them. 
Slaves are also called mancipia, in that they are taken 
from the enemy by hand — manucapti." (Institutes, I, 
Tit. 3, Sec. 3.) Our holy religion proclaimed liberty — ' 
not slavery — to captives. 

The religion of Christ not only struck at the very 
sources of slavery, but, where it was already established, 
it provided for its destruction. '* To set at liberty them 
that are bound," is a phrase that means this much. 
This must be taken in its literal sense, for so history 
clearly proves. Primitive Christianity gradually set at 
liberty the slaves. It not only dried up the principal 
sources of slavery, in respect to poverty and captives, 
but also assailed the heathen maxim, the child follows the 



THE NEW TESTAMENT. 289 

condition of the mother. Christianity established mar- 
riage, so that the chiklren all became free ; and those 
bruised or doivntrodden, by the system, were set at liberty. 
The free states of this country are examples of this. 
Emancipation by Britain and other nations, furnish nota- 
ble examples of the same result. 

In short, our blessed Savior proclaims a general jubilee 
by "preaching the acceptable year of the Lord." The 
great design of the Gospel is the salvation of the soul. 
The results of this are to do away all those great moral 
evils that result in society from sin, and among them 
slavery holds a principal place. The full results of our 
religion will not only banish slavery, infanticide, war, 
etc., from our earth, but it will exclude all those moral 
evils which become incorporated with the social and civil 
institutions of man. To have preached the emancipation 
of slaves, by the apostles, would have been the same as to 
attempt an overthrow of the Roman Government. And 
this civil emancipation would not strike at the root of 
the evil. Our Lord and his apostles, therefore, went to 
the source of the evil, by preaching the Gospel to both 
slaves and masters ; so that, in carrying out the moral 
principles of our holy religion, and a moral practice 
under it, the great moral evils of the world were under- 
mined. And the process is still in motion, and will con- 
tinue till our earth shall be filled with the knowledge of 
God, as the waters cover the face of the deep. 

25 



290 THE BIBLE AXD SLAVERY. 



CHAPTER XI. 

PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 

In our previous chapters we have presented the princi- 
ples of the Abrahamic covenant, in reference to slavery, 
in which it was shown that slavery under the patriarchs 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, found no support, although 
a just service obtained. Subsequently, however, a system 
of slavery flourished in the world, as in the case of Jo- 
seph, the bondage of Egypt and other nations. It was 
shown, too, that the Mosaic code excluded slavery from 
the Hebrew commonwealth, and preserved the Jewish 
nation as a free people, up to the time of our Lord ; and, 
indeed, the Jews were the only free nation then in the 
world. The great moral principles in the Mosaic law 
that excluded slavery, in common with its other moral 
laws, were recognized in the New Testament. Our blessed 
Savior proclaimed, in general terms, the great Christian 
jubilee for the whole world ; so that his religion, just 
in proj)ortion as it prevailed in its purity, would dry up 
the sources of slavery, and abolish the remnants of it on 
the earth. 

In accordance with these views we might expect, that, 
in the development of the Christian system, we should 
find the principles and practice of an accurate Christian 
discipline on the subject of slavery. This we find laid 
down most exactly, yet briefly, by the apostle Paul, in 
his epistles to the Corinthian, Ephesian, and Colossian 
Churches, as well as in his epistles to Timothy and Titus, 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 291 

This discipline is applied in the case of Onesimus. We 
call this the Pauline discipline in regard to slavery, slave- 
holders, and slaves. It is true that Peter adds a little ; 
yet, on the whole, we may call it the Pauline discipline 
on slavery. Paul was the apostle of the Gentiles, and 
he was, therefore, the right apostle to teach the Gentiles 
the proper principles and practice in regard to slavery. 
He was also by birth a Roman citizen, and was well 
acquainted with the Roman laws on slavery, as his in- 
structions plainly show. In treating on the Pauline dis- 
cipline on slavery we shall take occasion to present, 

I. The principles and rules he lays down in reference 
to slavery, slaveholders, and slaves. 

II. The exercise of this discipline in the case of Ones- 
imus, which became the model of the Christian Church 
in succeeding times. 

III. That this discipline, in principles and practice, was 
effectually antislavery, and laid the foundation for the 
extirpation of slavery by the working of moral princi- 
ples, and all for the good of Church and state. 

I. We will first present the Pauline discipline in refer- 
ence to slavery, slaveholders, and slaves, as to its prin- 
ciples and rules. 

1. In order to present the subject clearly, we will quote 
all the laws, regulations, or principles, which he lays 
down on this topic, with direct reference to it, not inci- 
dentally, but with the express design to govern the whole 
subject. 

1 CoRixTfflANs VII, 20-24, A. D. 59. 

*' 20. Let every man abide *' 20. "Exastoi iv t^ x'Kricist. 

in the same calling wherein ^ IxXrfir^, h ravr^jy ^frifw. 
he was called. 

" 21. Art thou called, be- *'21. AoCtlo? ixxridrii', ^i^ 

ing a servant ? care not for croc ,uf?.f rw (tt?i:^* si, xal bvvaaat, 



292 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

it ; but if tliou mayest be ixevOspos ysviaOac, ^ioxkov x9t 

made free, use it rather. cai.) 

'' 22. For he that is called *' 22. 'O yap h Kt-pt^ x^rj- 

in the Lord, being a servant, Od^ 8ov%os artsT^tvdepos Kvpiov 

is the Lord's freeman ; like- iativ o/totcoj xal 6 ixevOspo^ 

wise also he that is called, xXr.Oeis ^ov'Kos iatL Xptorov. 
being free, is Christ's serv- 
ant. 

"23. Ye are bought with ** 23. Tt^-^j T^yopd^Ovjte' firj 

a price ; be not ye the serv- ylvsoOe 8ovJ\.oi av9pu>TCMv. 
ants of men. 

*'24. Brethren, let every "24. "ExaoTfo^ iv 9 IxT^ridiq 

man, wherein he is called, dSs^-^ot h tovtut fisvsr'oi jtapa 

therein abide with God." ©f^.** 

Cglossians III, 22-25, A. D. 64. 



(I 



22. Servants, obey in "22. 'Ot SorXot vTta.xovstE 

all things your masters ac- xara Tcdvta totj xatd adpxa, 

cording to the iiesh ; not xvpioc^, fxr} iv d^da'kfiobovT^slc!, 

with eye-service, as men- wj avOpuiTidpsoxo^, d-kjC iv art- 

pleasers ; but in singleness T^otrj-tt xapSJaj ^ojiovfxsvoi tov 

of heart, fearing God : <ds6v. 

" 23. And whatsoever ye " 23. Kat Ttdv 6 tt, idv Ttoi- 

do, do it heartily, as to the ijr'f, ix -^vxri^ ipyd^saOs, wj fw 

Lord, and not unto men ; Kvpici xal ovx avOpurtoti. 

"24. Knowing that of " 24. 'EtSoT'f j o-r't drto Knptov 

the Lord ye shall receive arco%ri'^£aO£ -triv dv-taTiohoaw Tfrjs 

the reward of the inherit- x^rjpovoixtai' t^ ydp Kvpt'w 

ance : for ye serve the Lord Xpturw Sov'Ksvets. 
Christ. 

" 25. But he that doeth " 25. *0 8h a^cxCiv xofxcsLtao 

wrong, shall receive for the r^Sixr^asj xai ovx satt, rtposw- 

wrong which he hath done : Tto'Kr^-^la.** 
and there is no respect of 
persons." 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 293 

CoLossiANs IV, 1, A. D. 64. 

'• 1. Masters, give unto " 1. 'Ot sevptot, to bixaLov 

your servants that whicli is [xara to hixo.Lov\ xal ty^v Iso- 

just and right, knowing that tr^ta toi,^ Sov-koti Tiapsx^od^j 

ye also have a Master in hbotss, 6Vc xae, v/xil^ ex^''^^ 

heaven. xvptov ev oupai'otj." 

Ephesians VI, 5-9, A. D. 64. 

" 5. Servants, be obedi- ** 5. Oi 6ov7.oi, vTtaxovsts 

ent to them that are your -fot? zrpt'otj xata odpxa fista 

masters according to the ^o/Sov xal tpojxov, iv aTfkotritv 

flesh, with fear and trem- -^^j xap5taji'|ttwi', tljjr'wXptffT'w. 
hling, in singleness of your 
heart, as unto Christ : 

"6. Not with eye-serv- ''6. M?} xa-r'' 6<p0a%fjLo^ov- 

ice, as men-pleasers ; but as %iiav cbj dj/0pco7tap?crxot, axx\ 

the servants of Christ, do- wj bov^ov tov "Kpiatov, rioiovv 

ing the will of God from r'ej to eiky^/xa tov Qiov ix 

the heart ; 4'v;t»??» 

*' 7. With good will do- " 7. Mst' evvolas, bovXsvov- 

ing service, as to the Lord, ts? '«? t^ Kvpt'w xai, ovx di-^pw- 

and not to men : rtotj* 

" 8. Knowing that what- " 8. EiBotes ott S sdv tc 

soever good thing any man sxaato^ jtoiriffj] a^aObv, tovto 

doeth, the same shall he re- xofiultai Ttapdtov Kuptov, nts 

ceive of the Lord, whether hovT-o^ sits iT^svdspos, 
he be bond or free. 

**9. And, ye masters, do "9. Kal ol xvptot, ta aita 

the same things imto them, 7ioi,slts itpo^ avtov^^avtivtiitriv 

forbearing \inoderating\ a7isL\r^v, slSots? 6tL xal v/xmv 

threatening : knowing that avtCi,v 6 Kvpto? lattv h ovpa- 

your Master [mar. both your vol^, xai Ttpo^cortoT.r^-^ta ovx soti 

and their Master] also is in nap' avtCj." 
heaven ; neither is there re- 
spect of persons with him.'* 



294 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

1 Timothy i, 9, 10, A. D. 65. 

** 9. Knowing this, that **9. El8d>s Tfovro, 6to Stxatw 

the law is not made for a vd^oj ov xsltai, di/d^ocj Ss xai 

righteous man, but for the awTtotdxtois, aas^toL xai a^iap- 

lawless and disobedient, for tu^Koli, avoaioii xai j3£(3»j7totj* 

the ungodly and for sinners, rtapax^atj xai ^ni^rpaTi-cjaif, av- 

for unholy and profane, for dporpovot-if 
murderers of fathers, and 
murderers of mothers, for 
manslayers, 

*' 10. For whoremongers, *' 10. ndpvotj, apssvoxoUac^, 
for them that defile them- avdpanobvatali, '^svotaL^y Eft- 
selves with mankind, for tdpzotj, xai, si tv 'itspov tiQ 
men-stealers, for liars, for vyiaivovG'^ bvbaoxa'kia. avtlxei- 
perjured persons, and if tat." 
there be any other thing 
that is contrary to sound 

doctrine." 

1 Timothy vi, 1, 2, A. D. 65. 

** 1. Let as many serv- *' 1. "Osoo slsiv vTto ^v/ov 

ants [slaves] as are under SovXot, Tot;j Ibi^ov? Sacr/tdraj 

the yoke count their own Ttdar^g tvfir^ dlt'ovj 7iyd6d<^aavi 

masters w^orthy of all honor, 'Cva (xvi to ovo/xa tov Qiov xai ^ 

that the name of God and didaaxaua j57\.aa^rjy.r'tav. 
his doctrine be not blas- 
phemed. 

" 2. And they that have "2. Ol be TtL^tov? l-xovts^ 

believing masters, let them Sfcrrtdra^, ^>j xata^povsLtaaav, 

not despise them, because dr't d8f%^oi, sictv 6xKd {.lavy.ov 

they are brethren ; but rath- 8ov^£vitu,aav, 6tt Ttiatoi dcv 

er do them service, because xai dyaTtyjtoi ol rijj evspysaoa^ 

they are faithful and be- avrt/kaf-ifjaiofievot,. 
loved, partakers of the ben- 
efit. These things teach and 
exhort." 



j> 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 295 

Titus ii, 9, 10, A. D. 65. 

**9. Exliort servants to "9. /\ov%ov? l^loc^ Setfrto- 

Ibe obedient unto their own -r'atj vrtotdcasaOai, iv jtaaiv 

masters, and to please them svapsotovi elvat, fi/rj 'avti^syov- 

well in all things ; not an- tai' 
swering \inar. gainsaying] 
again ; 

" 10. Not purloining, but ''10. MiJ j'otffjJt^o^tirovj, 

shewing all good fidelity ; avka ni^tiv rtaaav ivSscxwf^t' 

that they may adorn the vov^ 'o/ya9riv' Iva t-qv Si^aaxa- 

doctrine of God our Savior xiav tov csutr^pog Tjfxuiv Qiov 

in all things." xocy^ttwcjfcv iv Ttaaw.' 



>i 



1 Peter ii, 18, A. D. 60. 

"18. Servants, be subject "18. Ol olxita.iy v7ioT;o.6Qo- 
to your masters with all jutpot iv Tiavtl 4>o3mj T'ot j bzGJto- 
fear ; not only to the good Tacj; ov fiovov fot? V/a^ot j xcu) 

and gentle, but also to the irimxaacv, 'aX/^a xai Tfoii Gxo%- 

froward." eotj.'* 

2. We will now survey each of the foregoing passages 
of Scripture in order to collect from them the teachings 
intended to be communicated. 

Corinth was long the chief slave mart of Greece, and 
abounded in slaves. They were distinguished by the 
name of choenix measurers. Many of them, doubtless, 
embraced the Gospel when preached by Paul, Apollos, 
and others. It is manifest, from the language used by 
Paul, that many slaves were converted. On this account 
he gives them the instructions quoted above. (1 Cor. 
vii, 20-24.) From these instructions we think the fol- 
lowing points are established : 

(1.) The reveived Christian should not anxiously desire 
to change the outward state in which he was when God renews 
or calls him, without clear direction from Providence. 



296 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

**Let every man abide in tlie same calling wherein lie 
was called." Verse 20. "Brethren, let every man, 
wherein he is called, therein abide with God." Verse 
24. This is illustrated by circumcision and uncircum- 
cision, or the state of a Jew, or Gentile, which is set 
down as nothing comjDared with " keeping the command- 
ments of God." Verses 18, 19. The reason is, that a 
man will enjoy more comfort, and can be more holy and 
useful, in a situation to which he is accustomed than in 
any other to which he is a stranger. And the apostle re- 
peats the injunction because of its great importance ; for 
they who are so unsettled in their minds as to be contin- 
ually changing from one condition of life to another sel- 
dom make progress, or are of much use to themselves or 
others, in any one. But they were instructed " therein to 
abide with God," doing all things as unto God, and as 
in his immediate presence. They who thus abide with 
God preserve a holy indifference with regard to outward 
things. 

L'Enfant thinks the apostle repeats the advice here " to 
correct some disorders among the Christian slaves in Cor- 
inth, who, agreeably to the doctrine of the false teachers, 
claimed their liberty, on pretense that, as brethren in 
Christ, they were on an equality with their Christian 
masters." 

(2.) Christian slaves should not he discontented with 
their state of slavery, nor be very anxious for obtaining lib- 
erty, on the sujoposition that this condition renders them un- 
acceptable to God, or is incompatible with their being Chris- 
tians. 

** Art thou called, being a servant, \bov%oi, doulos, slave f 
or bondman,'\ care not for it." Verse 21. " For he 
that is called in the Lord, being a servant, \bov%os, dou- 
los, slave,^ is the Lord's [artfTituSfpos] freed-man." Verse 
22. He is now the Lord's freed-man, being delivered 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 297 

from the slavery of sin and Satan, and therefore, pos- 
sesses the greatest of all dignities. The apostle exhibits 
the small importance of human distinctions, when speak- 
ing of the most miserable lot, even that of a slave. He 
says. Care not for it. The sense is, "For the Christian 
slave is the Lord's freed-man ; that is, in a moral and 
spiritual sense ; and, in like manner, the Christian free- 
man is the slave of Christ ; that is, metaphorically, by 
being bound to obey his precepts. Comp. Rom. vi, 
20-22." (Bloomfield on 1 Cor. vii, 22.) 

(3.) The freedom of the Christian is to he prized far 
above the state of civil or human freedom. 

*' For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, 
\douloSy slave, ~\ is the freed-man of the Lord. Likewise 
also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant." 
Verse 22. The Christian, though a slave, is the freed- 
man of Christ, is the brother of all Christians, and an 
heir of heaven, as well as the willing servant of Christ 
on earth. And even the converted freeman is no longer 
his own ; he is bought with a price, and is Christ's serv- 
ant. He is not free in this respect, nor at his own dis- 
posal, nor at liberty to do his own will, but bound to be 
obedient and subject to Christ. 

(4.) Every Christian slave should do his utmost to become 
a freeman^ by using all lawful means, and embracing all 
proper opportunities. 

"But if thou mayest [stjcat Swaffat s'KsvOs^o^ ysvesOat, 

canst, or art able to] become a freeman, use it rather." 
Verse 21. If they can avoid it, they are commanded not 
to continue the slaves of men. This state of being slaves 
places them wholly under the dominion of another, de- 
grades them, and places them under great disabilities. 
It is, therefore, a state which every Christian ought to 
get out of -as soon as he conveniently could, though while 
he remains in it, he should not be excessively anxious in 



298 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

regard to his condition. Yet Christian slaves are hound 
as Christians to do their utmost to he free. ** If thou 
mayest be free," is no adequate sense of the original ; so 
xai Svi'aoat, if thou canst, or art able also to become a f reed- 
man, conveys the force of the text. Every Chrisiian 
slave ought to use all lawful means to become a freed- 
man, that he might be a better Christian. The reasons 
for this preference are beyond number. As a slave he 
could not be a minister of Christ, because the services 
due his master would not allow him to discharge a min- 
ister's duties. If the Christian slave were a mother, and 
she became free, her children would be free. If the slave 
were single, he or she could marry, and would not be 
subject to the beastly contubernimn of slavery. Free per- 
sons could go to school, could go to Church, would not 
be sold, nor bartered, nor given by will, nor put up on 
the auctioneer's block, nor parents and children sepa- 
rated. Hence the apostolic command to all slaves, "If 
it is in thy power to become a freed-man, use or enjoy 
freedom " in preference to slavery. 

(5.) Every free Christian is commanded, by Paul, not to 
become a slave by any act or will of his own. 

"Be ye not the servants of men:" much more prop- 
erly, M?7 ylviaOs 8ov%ol, " Do not bccome the slaves of 
men." Wesley's translation is, " Do not become the 
bond-slaves of men." Freemen among the Romans 
could become slaves by their own will and acts, in at 
least two ways. Some, who were poor, sold themselves 
for the sake of present relief. But a Christian would be 
guilty for doing so, because by his industry and economy 
he ought not to be poor, and thus compelled, like wicked 
persons, to have resort to slavery for relief ; and were he 
poor without his own fault, his fellow-Christians would 
aid him, so that he need not become a slave on account 
of his poverty. A free person, by his crimes, as for 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 299 

tlieft, could be made a slave. Hence tlie force of the 
command in the text, ** Do not become the slaves of 
men;" as no Christian could become a slave for any 
of the causes mentioned without doing wrong, whether 
on account of poverty, which he could provide against, 
or for theft, or any other crime. The teaching of the 
apostle was, that no free person, on any account, should 
consent to return to slavery. And those slaves in the 
south who contentedly remain slaves, when their masters 
would set them free, exhibit specimens of ill-taught 
Christians, who are misled by false teaching, and over- 
look the instructions of Paul, *'Do not become the slaves 
of men ;" or, in other words, you refuse to become free 
when you have it in your power, and, therefore, you are 
wrong ; because you ought to become free if you can. 
And those teachers w^ho say the slaves are better off than 
if they were free, teach false doctrine ; for Paul teaches 
slaves to become free, if they can procure their freedom 
lawfully, or by contract with their masters. 

But Paul is especially peremptory against freemen be- 
coming slaves ; and his argument is the strongest in the 
world, even the argument of redemption : " Ye are bought 
with a price." Some paraphrase it thus : " Are ye bought 
with a price from slavery ? Do not become the slaves of 
men. Never sell yourselves. Prefer and retain your lib- 
erty, now that you have obtained it." The law taught in 
reo^ard to the Hebrews, " Thev are mv servants which I 
have brought out of the land of Egypt ; they shall not 
be sold with the sale of a bondman " — Lev. xxv, 42 — 
Paul applies this to Christians : *' For ye are not your 
own ; ye are bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in 
your body and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Cor. 
iv, 20. Christians are bound to devote their bodies and 
all their members as instruments of righteousness, as well 
as their souls and all their faculties. A state of slavery. 



300 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

if it does not prevent this, greatly hinders it. There are 
many evils and snares incident to a state of slavery. The 
bodies of Christians are the temples of God, and are to 
he consecrated to him in temperance, chastity, and purity. 
Their spirit, too, is to he consecrated to God, by faith, 
hope, love, meekness, and all the graces of the Holy 
Spirit. The express command, therefore, of Paul is to 
all. If you can become free, enjoy this freedom. If you 
are free, never, on any account, become a slave. 

(6.) The persons here called dov7Mo were slaves. The 
word doviog itself signifies either a hired servant or slave, 
according to the usus loquendl of the writer. That the 
meaning of doulos here is slave is proved from the follow- 
ing considerations : 1. The servants generally, if not all, 
at Corinth, were slaves. They were called chcenix meas- 
urers. This is plain from the very language employed by 
Paul in describing the social condition of the Corinthian 
converts, as well as the particular vices to which they 
were exposed : " Behold your calling, brethren, that not 
many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not 
many noble are called ; but God hath chosen the foolish 
things of the world to confound the wise ; and God hath 
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the 
things that are mighty. And base things of the world, and 
things that are despised, hath God chosen ; yea, things that 
are not, to bring to naught the things that are." 1 Cor. i, 
26-29. The terms, ignoble, unwise, weak, foolish, base 
things, things that are not, here expressed or implied, will 
apply to slaves, though inaptly to free persons. 2. The 
name doulos, meaning one in bondage, is in the passage 
constantly put in contrast with fXfvOfpoj yivsaOai, to he 
made free, as well as the whole spirit of the passage. 
Such is the usual style of Paul on this subject, as will 
appear from the following quotations : " Whether bond 
or FREE." " Etff SovXot, svti c7,£u6>fpot." 1 Cor. xii, 13. 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 301 

*' There is neither bond nor free." " Ovx svc Sovt^o^, ovSs 
(•ksvOipo^." Gal. iii, 28. " The same shall he receive 
from the Lord, whether he be bond or free." " Eits 8ov- 
xoj, ftrf fTLEv^jpoj." Eph. vi, 8. *' Where there is neither 
Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor imcirciimcision, barba- 
rian, Scythian, bond nor free." " AovXo? sj^svOipo^.'* 
Col. iii, 11. The common usas loquendl of Paul, when 
treating on the subject, was to use the word Sovxoj in the 
sense of slave, in direct distinction from a freeman ; and 
the above texts prove this without doubt. 3. The per- 
sons addressed are exhorted to get free from their present 
state, if they possibly can. This will show that their 
state was not one of freed-men, as we have no exhorta- 
tions in Scripture that exhort men to get rid of freedom. 

4. Besides, the apostle exhorts, or rather commands, the 
Corinthians not to become the doulol, or slaves, of men. 
Such an admonition can not apply to hired servants, as 
theirs is a service which has little in it in common with 
slavery, as to its proper state in society, except the labor 
performed. The state of a voluntary hired laborer is no 
where, as far as we can learn, presented in Scripture as 
one into which Christians are exhorted not to enter. 

5. Bagster, in his admirable Bible, gives the following 
note on 1 Corinthians vii, 21 : '* Being a servant ; rather 
a slave — 5ot?.o$ — the property of another, and bought with 
his money." 

(7.) The instnidlons of Paul to the Corinthian Chris- 
tian slaves gives no sanction to slavery, but, on the contrary, 
condemns the system. 

The reasons are the following, legitimately drawn from 
the passage : 1. Slaves are exhorted to obtain freedom, if 
it be in their power. If slavery were a good state, it 
would not be proper to get rid of it ; and because Chris- 
tians are exhorted to choose freedom and avoid slavery, 
the consequence is that slavery is wrong. 2. Freed per- 



302 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

sons are taught by the apostles not to become slaves, 
seeing they are now free. Therefore, what Christians are 
instructed to avoid can not be right. 3. The moral prin- 
ciples inculcated in the epistles to the Corinthians go to 
the same purpose. But the conclusion is j)lain from the 
two foregoing considerations, that because slavery is to 
be got rid of, if possible, by those involved in it, and to 
be avoided by persons free from it, that it is not of God. 
4. It were easy to show that, as the Old Testament con- 
demned the slavery of Egypt and of the other nations, 
and that no slavery was allowed to be established among 
God's ancient peo23le, Christians could not be induced to 
believe that Roman slavery was right. 

(8.) Corollary 1. Every Christian should do his utmost 
to induce slaves to become Christians, and to esteem freedom 
from sin above civil freedom. 

This is a plain consequence from the foregoing. The 
freedom of Christ is of more value than freedom from 
slavery. Christianity is even, in an important sense, a 
substitute for freedom. It is even more, as it alone pre- 
pares adequately the slave to enjoy freedom to advantage. 
The great work of the Church and of Christians is to 
lead men, whether bond or free, masters or slaves, to be 
Christians, and then every secondary benefit, as civil free- 
dom, and the like, will follow, provided the appropriate 
exertions be made. 

(9.) Corollary '2i. Every Christian citizen is morally bound 
to use all proper means as a citizen to promote freedom from 
slavery, yet as secondary to freedom from sin. 

This is another consequence from the preceding. The 
first object is the salvation of the soul from the igno- 
rance, guilt, power, and pollution of sin. The next, or 
secondary object, is to deliver from slavery, or degrada- 
tion, that the Christian may not be impeded by slavery 
or any degrading condition of life. As the slave can not 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 303 

plead his cause, tlie free Christian is to plead for him. As 
the slave can not redeem himself, his Christian brother 
should do it for him. As the slave can not vote or hold 
any civil office, the free Christian citizen should come 
forAvard and do all this for his poor Christian brother, or 
for any enslaved human being, whether Jew, Gentile, 
Christian, or infidel. 

3. Instructions for slaves and masters directed to the 
Church at Colosse. 

Colosse w^as an ancient and populous city of the 
Greater Phrygia, an inland country in the Lesser Asia. 
This city and region abounded with slaves ; and Phile- 
mon is said to have been the first bishojD or pastor of 
the Church of the Colossians. The e^oistle w^as written 
in Rome about A. D. 64, and sent to the Colossians by 
Tychicus and Onesimus, and at the same time in which 
the epistle to Philemon was written. In the epistle to 
the Colossians the instructions to slaves and masters are 
contained, which we have quoted above, and on which 
we make the ensuing remarks. (Colossians iii, 22-24.) 
On the duties of slaves we have the following : 

(1.) Obedience to their masters in all things was 
required. *' Servants, obey in all things your masters, 
according to the flesh." They were required to execute 
all the lawful commands of their masters, but to do noth- 
ing contrary to the law of God, because the authority of 
God was greater than that of the master, for it controlled 
both master and slave. They were to obey their masters 
not through the fear of their masters, but through the fear 
of God. 

(2.) The properties of this obedience from servants to 
masters are presented thus. 1. Xot ivith eye-service — being 
more attentive under the eye of the master than at other 
times, as mere men-jpleasers. 2. But " in singleness of 
heart, fearine: God." Tbev were to serve with a^reat sim- 



304 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

plicity and sincerity of spirit, so as to eye their Master in 
heaven with an eye to his presence — his command — his 
assistance — his honor and glory. It was to be done 
heartily, as unto Christ, as supreme, and not to men. 
Thus the authority of God as over all is recognized in 
this obedience, so as to be influenced by his fear, and to 
be done as "to the Lord and not to man." Thus the 
commands of God were to rise superior to those of the 
master. 

(3.) A glorious reward is held out to the slave from 
God, in pursuance to his obedience to his master. ** Of 
the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance." 
And the service to the master in performing his daily 
tasks, is set down to the slave, as '* serving the Lord 
Christ." 

(4.) But the slave is not allowed to do wrong, though 
he may be wronged. '' He that doeth wrong shall receive 
for the wrong that he hath done." Slaves were notable 
for fraud, lying, and stealing, and masters for cruelty and 
injustice. The instruction here shows the impartiality of 
the divine justice. God will avenge the wrong by whom- 
soever done. He will do this impartially and proportion- 
ally. " There is no respect of persons with God." So 
that he that doeth wrong, whether master or slave, will 
give an account to God for his deeds. 

(5.) That the persons here called donloi, servants or 
slaves, were not hired servants but truly slaves, we justly 
conclude, because, 1. The Greeks and Romans had 
scarcely any servants but slaves. 2. The contrast be- 
tween these douloi and their masters w^as great, and was 
such as exists between slaves and masters, and not such 
as exists between hired servants and masters. 

The duties of masters are given in the epistle to the 
Colossians as follows: "Masters, give unto your serv- 
ants [doidoi, slaves'] that which is just and equal ; 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 305 

knowing tliat ye also have a Master in heaven." Col. 
iv, 1. 

First. Masters were to render to their slaves to bvxa.iovy 
that which is just, or as Griesbach and most others read, 
xata to gtzatov, according to that which is just. Robinson 
renders to bixaiov that which is right, just, fit, quoting 
this text as an example of this meaning. St. Paul refers, 
we think, to the legal use of the word, or its synonym, 
justitia, justice, in the Roman law, on the subject of slav- 
ery, on which he was then formally treating, as he was 
giving instructions to both slaves and masters. 

The Roman law defines justice thus: ''Justitia est 
constans et perpetua voluntas jus suum cuique trihuenti.'''* 
" Justice is the constant and perpetual disposition to ren- 
der every man his own." (Institutes Just., Lib. I, 
Tit. 1.) x\nd juris prudentia, or the knowledge of justice, 
he defines to be, "justi atque injusti scientia." **The 
science of what is just and unjust." (Id., Sec. 1.) The 
precepts of law or of justice, the same high authority 
defines, " honeste vivere, alterum non loedere, suum cuique 
tribuere." " To live honestly, to hurt no one, to give 
to every one his own." (Id., Sec. 3.) As to the origin 
of slavery he says, ** Wars arose, and the consequences 
were captivity and slavery, both which are contrary to 
natural law ; for, by natural law, all men from the be- 
ginning were born free." (Id., I, 2, 2.) ''Jure eiiim 
naturali omnes homines ab initio liberi nascebantur.'^ 

Justinian defines liberty thus, ** Liberty is the natural 
power of acting as we please, unless prevented by force 
or by the law." (Id., I, 3, 1.) " Slavery is when one 
man is subject to the dominion of another, according to 
the law of nations, though contrary to natural right." 
(Id., Sec. 2.) 

According to the Roman law all men were born free. 

i Slavery is induced contrary to the law of nature, by 

26 



306 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

force, so that eacli man lias by nature a right to himself, 
or to personal liberty, personal security, the acquisition 
of property, and the pursuit of happiness. Justice ren- 
ders to every man his own ; and it will especially give to 
every one the possession of himself, comprising his lib- 
erty, security, the fruit of his own labor and skill, and all 
other natural and just conventional rights growing out 
of these. Hence the precepts of justice teach each to live 
honestly as to himself, to hurt no one, and to render to 
each his own. So that justice in the Roman sense would 
never allow a man to be a slave. And the law enacting 
slavery is contrary to natural law, to the divine law, and 
to just human laws. The right to a slave is an unjust 
right, and is founded on an unjust law — the law of mere 
force, or some civil law which is itself contrary to 
justice. 

The command of Paul to masters is to render to their 
slaves to bixaiov, that which is just, or rather aiara to 
bixaiov, according to that which is just. This teaches the 
master to render to the slave his own, or, in other words, 
to give him liberty, and, with the least delay, to secure 
to him his civil liberty, and release him from the power 
of the slave laws, by legal process. By this the master 
acknowledges to the slave that he has no just right to 
him as property, or to control him, as to liberty, security, 
labor, or the like ; and that the slave owns himself, just as 
much as the master owns himself. The same demand of 
doing that which is just on the part of the master, will 
require that he remove the unjust impediment of slavery 
from the slave, and place him in possession of himself. 
And the slave has the right to demand, in due time, this 
act of justice, as soon as may be, that neither he nor his 
wife and children may lie under the disability of slaver}^ 
but that they may enjoy liberty. The right of a master 
to a slave may be illustrated by a case or two. It may 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 307 

be compared to tlie right which a man has to an estray 
which he finds on his premises. He has a just right to 
hold this estray till he can restore it to the owner and no 
longer. So the master has no other right to the slave 
than to hold him safely till he can restore him to the 
owner. And every man is his own owmer. The master 
owns and holds the slave only in trust till he can give him 
his liberty, and in the mean time he must render him an 
equivalent for his labor, as the slave is bound to render 
to the master an equivalent for his care and maintenance. 
Or the right to a slave may be illustrated by finding lost 
property. The finder may hold it till he can get the true 
owner. In the case of the slave, the true owner of him 
is the slave himself, so that no dispute can arise about 
the proper owner. 

Second. The master is to render to the slave that which 
is equal, triv Isotr^-ta,, equality, or, rather, xatd vootr^'ta., ac- 
cording to equality, or that which is equal. For iaotrji 
means equality, equity, or what is equitable, and Robinson 
gives it this meaning in the text under consideration. 
And the root tcyoj means equal, like, alike. In conse- 
c[uence of the process of law, or the minority, or other 
circumstances of the slave, the master may not be able, 
or it might not be best, to emancipate the slave imme- 
diately. Yet he is to render no unjust act toward him, 
though full justice can not be now awarded. But in his 
treatment of him in the mean time, he is bound to ren- 
der to him that which is equitable, on the principle of 
equality and equity. The law of strict equity is to gov- 
ern here so that the master will render to the slave a full 
equivalent for the slave's services to him, till he can ren- 
der to him the act of justice which emancipates him. 
The laws of the slave system can not govern here. They 
are null and void as to the Christian master and his 
legal slave. The law of reciprocal right must rule. 



308 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

** Do unto all men as ye would tliey should do unto 
you," is now the standard, till the law of love shall 
hreak off the last link in the slave's chains. 

Third. The duties of justice and equity to the slave are 
here enjoined on the master by the argument — knowing 
that ye also have a Master in heaven. God is supreme 
over both masters and slaves. God treats none of his 
creatures as slaves, neither should masters treat any as 
slaves, but as brethren — the children equally of one com- 
mon Father who is in heaven, and to whom we all can 
pray and call him our Father. No rigorous rule is 
compatible with the Christian relation of master and 
slave. And till the justice of liberty is awarded, let 
the brotherhood of humanity and of Christianity treat 
the legal slave as a human being or Christian brother, 
disusing the unjust rights that the slave system may 
confer on the master, and using the power as master only 
for the protection of the slave and his final liberation. 

In these instructions both to slaves and masters, we 
have neither sanction, support, nor durability awarded to 
the slave system of Rome, of America, or of any other 
country. This will appear fully on briefly surveying the 
duties of slaves, the reasons for performing them, and 
the duties of masters, and the reasons enjoining these 
duties. Christian slaves, while they are slaves, are bound 
to obey their masters in every thing not sinful — they were 
to do so not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in 
singleness of heart, doing it heartily. This service they 
were to render as to Christ the Lord, with the fear of 
God. They were to look for a great inheritance from the 
Lord. No wrong act was allowed to be done by the slave, 
however much he might be wronged himself. And he 
was taught that there was no respect of persons to be 
exercised to the sinning slave any more than to the sin- 
ning master. Such conduct on the part of the slaves, 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 309 

founded on such principles, would necessarily produce 
conviction in the mind of the slaveholder as to his duty, 
and to the wrongs of slavery itself. 

Fourth. Thus the master was hound to do according to 
justice, so as to free the slave as soon as the law and the. 
circumstances would call for. And in the mean time, the 
law of equity and reciprocal right must govern him till 
justice would have its demands answered. And the 
awful consideration hung over him that he was equally 
as much subject, or under the dominion of God, as the 
slave was, and both must render an account to Him. 

These reciprocal duties of each would shortly lead 
toward placing the slave in the relation of a hired serv- 
ant, to whom was rendered a just equivalent. Christian 
marriage, too, was to he introduced, and the parental and 
filial relations were to he sustained. No master could 
sell his brother on any account. No trading of human 
beings could exist under this regimen. And as the 
Roman laws, in almost all cases, allowed of legal eman- 
cipation, there was no difficulty, under the Pauline code, 
in carrying it out. This discipline was transferred to the 
first Christian Churches. And slavery, under this benign 
discipline, melted gradually away in the Roman Empire ; 
though the remains continued for many centuries. Such 
is the course now for the Christian Church. This is slav- 
ery extirpation. Much of extirpation may take place 
before legal emancipation may take place. And, after 
legal emancipation, there may be much need of extirpa- 
tion ; so that the roots or bad effects of it may be done 
away, and no new forms of slavery may arise, such as 
the American slavery among professed Christians, after 
Christianity itself had done it away in former centuries. 

4. We next come to the epistle to the Church at 
Ephesus, to which Paul addressed an epistle, A. D. 64. 
Ephesus was the metropolis or chief city in Asia. Paul 



310 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

preached here three years — Acts xx, 31 — and from hence 
the Gospel spread throughout the whole province. , (Acts 
xix, 10.) In his epistle to the Ephesians, Paul's 
instructions to servants or slaves, as recorded in Ephe- 
sians vi, 5—9, comprise the following : 

(1.) The duties enjoined. " Servants, be obedient to 
your masters according to the flesh." Obedience to the 
masters is here enjoined — according to the fiesh ; that is, 
in temporal things, or things pertaining to this world, 
leaving the soul and conscience to God only, who alone 
is the sovereign Lord over them. Christian liberty is not 
inconsistent with civil subjection, for such as are God's 
freemen may be the legal slaves of men, and as such 
obedience is their duty in all lawful things. "Even a 
slave, if a Christian, was bound to serve him faithfully 
by whose money he was bought, however illegal that 
trafiic may be considered." (i)r. A. Clarke.) "The 
Gospel does not cancel the civil rights of mankind ; 
according to the flesh — that is, who have the command of 
your bodies, but not of your souls and consciences ; or, 
who are your masters according to the present state of 
things." [Benson.) Bengel, on this text says, " It was 
not proper after mention of the true Lord, in verse 4, 
that others should be called absolutely xvpioi, lords, there- 
fore, he adds, according to the flesh.'' ^ 

(2.) The manner of performing this obedience is 
pointed out. It is to be "with fear and trembling;" 
that is, with fear of displeasing them ; yet they must act 
not barelv out of fear, but out of love both to God and 
their master. It is a proverbial expression, however, 
implying the utmost care and diligence. They should 
obey, "because the law gives the master power to pun- 
ish for every act of disobedience." {^Dr. A. Clarke.) 

The obedience must be, " in singleness of heart," 
in great simplicity and sincerity of spirit, without guile, 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 311 

hypocrisy, or dissimulation. Not from mere fear, but 
from a principle of uprightness, serving them as you 
would serve Christ. ** Not with eye-service," in serving 
their masters when present, but neglecting it when they 
are absent. They should not be " men-pleasers," who 
have no regard to pleasing God, but as the "servants 
of Christ," who do "the will of God from the heart." 

The service must come from the heart, and Avith good 
will or cheerfulness. 

(3.) The authority and will of God are to control the 
slave in his service to his master. The "will of God " 
is to govern the slave, and overrides all commands of the 
master which would enjoin any thing morally wrong, or 
forbid doing right. But as the shive is in a state of serv- 
itude, it is the will of God that the slave should act con- 
scientiously in that state. The service should be as 7mto 
Christ, with sincerity and honesty of heart, with regard 
to the honor and cause of Christ. It should be as to the 
Lord and not to men — regarding God more than men, 
and obeying him beyond any master, when God's will 
or command so require it. "The authority of Christ 
ought to control and govern all men, even those in exter- 
nal slavery." [Bengel.) 

(4.) A glorious reward is secured to slaves in the per- 
formance of their duties. " Knowing that whatsoever 
good thing any man doth, the same shall he receive of 
the Lord, whether he be bond or free." Verse 8. The 
service of slaves to their masters, for the time being, is a 
good work on their part. Any good thing done, by bond 
or free, will meet with a reward from God. He is the 
universal guardian and protector of all his people. Ac- 
cording to the Roman and all slave codes, the slave could 
claim no wages as reward for his work. All he could 
have was his pecidiinn, or little earnings arising from his 
extra work done beyond his exacted task. And this, too, 



312 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

could be taken by the master, as far as the law of slavery 
was concerned. God here secures to the slave the full 
reward, through grace, of all the good he will do, in com- 
mon with the freeman. And this indirectly teaches the 
master, in its principle, in doing justice to the slave, to 
give him wages for his work, and even liberty also, with- 
out any unnecessary delay. And in this kind and indirect 
yet plain way, the master is instructed to take the yoke 
from off the neck of the slave. 

(5.) That the douloi, or servants mentioned here, were 
slaves we maintain, because, 1. The names SodTio?, honcl, 
and iTufv^fpoj, free, are placed in contrast. 2. Both masters 
and servants are placed here correlatively, so as to show 
that the service is not that of freemen, but of slaves, as 
the absence of temporal remuneration in the relation is 
noticed, though introduced by spiritual reward, so as 
clearly to convert, in the issue, the state of slavery into 
that of equitable service. 3. The temper of the service, 
as with fear and tremhling, though it may be accommo- 
dated to hired servants, does not comport with them as 
it does to slaves. Their servile state allows of this tem- 
per, as a natural moral disease of slavery, and, for the 
time, unavoidable, till, by Christianity, a more elevated 
feeling comes in, as it must, when the slave shall have 
passed fully from slavery to a state of freedom. 4. 
Wages or reward is supposed to be absent from the 
relation here regulated ; though it is to be introduced 
through the spiritual teaching, and ultimately to prevail, 
and, therefore, do away the state of slavery in the end. 
5. This is confirmed by the constant reference to God, 
and Christ, as governing and controlling, so that this 
high motive is put in as more than a substitute for the 
present servile condition. And the hopes of a glorious 
future held out, are here dwelt on in a manner to suit 
slavery, but not to suit a state of complete freedom. 



. PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 313 

In the instructions to masters of the Ephesian Church, 
we have the following: "And, ye masters, do the same 
things unto them, forbearing threatening ; knowing that 
your Master also is in heaven ; neither is there respect of 
persons with him." On this we observe, First. That the 
masters are required to "do the same things unto them." 
This does not mean to render the servants the same hind 
of service, but the manner of treating them ; that is, in 
obedience to the same command of God, with an eye to 
the same glory of God, with the same singleness of heart, 
with the same love and good will. On the words ta avta, 
eadem, the same things, Bengel remarks, in his Gnomon, 
"Compensate them with those things that benevolence 
enjoins. Love should moderate the duties of slaves and 
masters, as one and the same light does the various colors. 
Equality of nature and of faith is superior to the differ- 
ence in* states of life." 

This is a recij)rocal demand on the master, and it must 
imply just and equitable returns to slaves for their serv- 
ice, or an equivalent answering to wages. The master, 
too, is not to be the sole judge here according to the slave 
system, as the slave, or his chosen arbiter, is to decide the 
reciprocal duties of the master to the slave. Here will 
come in, in good place, the injunction to the masters at 
Colosse, in which the masters were to render to the slave 
according to justice, and according to the rule of an 
equivalent from them to the slaves. This rule, as we have 
shown, would sooner or later secure freedom, and in the 
mean time either wages or an equivalent to the slave for 
1 his services to his master. 

Second. Masters should "forbear threatening." The 
words o.viivit^ tTjv a7i£L%riv mean rather to mitigate, relax^ 
or not exact threatening ; that is, the threatened punish- 
ment. Masters were not to exercise their authority by 
crueltv or severitv ; but they should govern with mildness 

27 



314 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

and moderation. Masters were not allowed by tlie apos- 
tle to exercise cruelty to their slaves, nor even tlireats. 
They were to govern, says a Lapide, " with the same 
humanity, benignity, love, sincerity, and fidelity to the 
servants as the servants were required to serve them," 
We take it that the master was neither to inflict nor even 
threaten corporeal punishments to his slaves, because both 
were now under the teachings of the Gospel, and sup- 
posed to be governed by its spirit. Of course, the corpo- 
real punishments of the slave system must cease, and the 
Christian spirit of love must govern, which does not com- 
port with the use of the whip, stocks, and the like. And 
this is enforced by the consideration that the God of 
heaven was Lord both of the master and slave. 

Third. Besides, " God is no respecter of persons." The 
rich master and poor servant stand before him on the 
same level, and both shall be rewarded according to their 
works ; yet God will especially remember the oppressed, 
and will hear their cry. 

Fourth. That the masters here spoken of were slavehold- 
ers we can not doubt. As the servants were slaves, the 
masters were slaveholders ; for the terms here are correl- 
ative, the one corresponding to the other. They were mas- 
ters according to the Jiesh, or according to the Boman law 
under which they lived, and at the time the masters were 
generally slaveholders and the servants were generally 
slaves. 

The instructions of Paul to the Church of Ephesus 
gave no sanction or support to slavery ; but, on the other 
hand, they were subversive of it. The instructions to 
both slaves and masters were moral and religious, and 
every thing wrong was forbidden. The slaves must not 
steal, or lie, or commit any wrong act. The masters 
were also forbidden to do wrong, and required to do 
right. The spirit of love and reciprocal good to each 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 815 

other was enjoined. No person was to be sold, or beaten, 
or injured, or deprived of just rights. By this discipline, 
founded on brotherhood and love, slavery must die, and 
die it did. 

We do not find, however, that immediate emancipation 
was enjoined, though in most, or many cases, emancipa- 
tion followed. 1. All the subjects of the Roman empire 
were completely under the power of the Emperor and 
other subordinate tyrants, so that the state of slaves and 
free persons -was very much alike in many respects. Yet 
there was always, as there is now, an essential difference 
between freedom and slavery. 2. The apostle knew well 
the obstacles in the way of general emancipation under 
the Roman law. Therefore, Paul more immediately en- 
joined on masters and slaves the moral and social duties 
rather than emancipation. And the performance of these 
reciprocal duties, more speedily than emancipation, were 
beneficial to both parties, and hastened the time for a 
safer and more advantageous liberty. 3. The instructions 
to masters and slaves are mostly connected with instruc- 
tions to parents and children, to husbands and wives. 
The moral duties enjoined on these relations were de- 
signed to secure the proper duties belonging to each. The 
prohibitions and commands to slaveholders and slaves 
were manifestly designed to restore and establish the rela- 
tion of hired or remunerated servants, and do awav the 
abuse of just service ; and slavery was that abuse or 'per- 
version of it. Slavery is such a perversion of service as 
concubinage, or contubernium.^ is of lawful marriage. 
Hence, most, if not all, the instructions concerning the 
slave-master and the slave will apply to the Scriptural 
relation of master and servant. There is, too, a total ab- 
sence of the principal elements of the slave system in these 
instructions respecting slaves and masters, and this goes 
to say that slavery is disowned by Paul as an institution 



316 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

that conid not be regulated, but must be destroyed. There- 
fore, the want of instructions, by Paul, as to the support 
of it in its leading elements, is the death-warrant of the 
whole system. 4. Besides, the instructions to parents and 
children, husbands and wives, are subversive of slavery, 
if observed. Children are required to obey their parents ; 
but in the slave code they must obey their masters. 
Wives are required to obey their husbands ; but by the 
laws of slavery they must obey their masters. Wives 
and husbands are to be married ; but slavery ignores mar- 
riage, and substitutes contubernium. 

5. We have two passages which concern the subject 
of slavery in Paul's instructions to Timothy. The first 
is as follows : "Knowing this, that the law is not made 
for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, 
for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, 
for murderers of fathers, and murderers of mothers, for 
manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile them- 
selves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for per- 
jured persons, and if there be any other thing that is con- 
trary to sound doctrine." 1 Tim. i, 9, 10. 

The Greek word avh^ajtohistr^i is, according to Robin- 
son and all the lexicons, a slave-dealer, a man- stealer. 
Bengel saj^s of such, that they are "those who, by force, 
make men slaves. They are not unlike those who enlist 
soldiers by fraud, cheats, and force, or press them.'* 
They are those who abduct the slaves of another, or who 
reduce or retain free men in slavery. The word is derived 
from o.vh^a.TLohov , a slave, which is from ai-T^p, a man, and 
7iov<i, a foot, or, in other words, a doivntrodden man. The 
postfix LGtr^fiL, to stand, forming avhl^a7ioh^,ctr^i, is, there- 
fore, one who stands on the trampled man, and disposes of 
him as he will, by force, fraud, law, or any other means, 
so as to have him under his dominion, and make him a 
slave, or andrapodon, a downtrodden man. These slave- 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 317 

dealers, or man-stealers, are those who carry on a traffic 
in human beings, by purchase, sale, or use, either in 
reducing freemen to slaves, or continuing slaves as slaves, 
excejDt so far as is necessary to free them. The nations 
or states that legalize slavery, or connive at it, are also 
to be classed among slave-dealers, or man-stealers, in the 
strict moral sense of the term. 

And this is the Scriptural view of the slave-dealer, 
** And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be 
found in his hand, shall surely be put to death." Exod. 
xxi, 16. " If a man be found stealing any of his breth- 
ren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise 
of him, or selleth him, then that thief shall die, and thou 
shalt put evil away from among you." Deut. xxiv, 7. 
Thus the merchant in human beings is condemned, 
whether the stealer, the seller, or user of a man as prop- 
erty, excepting always, as far as is necessary, to pursue 
a legal course in order to restore the man to liberty. 

The Latin Vulgate translates the Greek word by Pla- 
giarii. And the Roman lawyers and law applied this 
name to slave-dealers, and denominated their theft pla- 
gium, because the law pronounced those worthy of death 
who were guilty of dealing in slaves. 

And these slave-dealers are classed with the worst sin- 
ners. They are ranked morally with the lawless, disobe- 
dient, ungodly, sinners, profane, murderers, liars, per- 
jured persons, and the like. ^^Man-stealers — the worst 
of all thieves, in comparison of whom highwaymen and 
house-breakers are innocent. What, then, are most trad- 
ers in negroes, procurers of servants for America, and 
all who enlist soldiers by lies, tricks, or enticements ?" 
(Wesley.) 

Observe, too, here, that the masters of slaves, w^ho, as 
above, retain them only so far as is necessary to free 
them, whether these masters are xrpiot or b^onotaf., are not 



318 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

to be classed with slave-dealers, and Paul does not place 
them without distinction on the same list. The mere 
master, or owner, may have obtained his slaves by inher- 
itance, and is contemplating their freedom, or he may 
have purchased slaves with the same view ; namely, 
freedom ; and, hence, such may be brethren beloved, faith- 
fid, good. Hence, also, instructions are given to such 
slaveholders or masters, the observance of which would 
preserve them from being on the list of slave-dealers, or 
mercenary slaveholders. But Paul gives no instructions 
how these latter classes should conduct themselves in their 
profession, or business, any more than he does to liars, 
murderers, and the like, with whom he associates them. 
But if the master, whether kurios or despotes, it matters 
not, is a slave-dealer, or becomes such, he is then to be 
classed with the liars and murderers, and to be treated as 
such, and the law is against him. 

There is another passage in the first Epistle of Timothy 
which teaches the duties of slaves to their masters, and 
incidentally presents the character of Christian masters, 
whose duties are clearly defined in the Epistles to the 
Colossians and Ephesians. It reads as follows : " Let 
as many servants \bov'kov, slaves^ as are under the yoke 
count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the 
name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And 
they that have believing masters, let them not despise 
them, because they are brethren ; but rather do them serv- 
ice, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of 
the benefit. These things teach and exhort." 1 Tim. 

vi, 1, 2. 

(1.) The servants, or slaves, were enjoined to be obe- 
dient to their unbelieving masters. They were to " count 
them worthy of all honor" — all the honor due from a 
servant to a master — and show it by obedience and re- 
spectful behavior. The reason for this was, that the 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 319 

name of God, or G od himself, and his doctrine, or Chris- 
tianity, be not blasphemed, or spoken evil of, as tending 
to destroy the political rights of mankind. " Civil rights 
are never abolished by any communications from God's 
Sj^irit. The civil state in which a man was before his 
conversion is not altered by that of his conversion ; nor 
does the grace of God absolve him from any claims 
which either the state or his neighbor may have on him. 
All these outward things continue unaltered." (Dr. A. 
Clarke.) The service is not enjoined on the score that 
the masters had a right in justice to the services, but that 
God and Christianity might not be evil spoken of. The 
obedience and services of slaves have often been influen- 
tial in the conversion of their masters and the promotion 
of religion. The conduct of stubborn and disobedient 
slaves w^ould have a very different effect. The honor of 
the Gospel was concerned in the rendering, on the part 
of the slave, a prompt obedience to the commands of his 
master. 

(2.) Servants, or slaves, are also instructed to obey 
their believing or Christian masters ; that is, those who 
hold them for the slaves' own good, and with a view to 
their freedom. These are not to despise their masters, 
because they are brethren in Christ, and on that account 
on a level with them. Christian brotherhood consists 
with inequality of place and relation, and with subjection 
of one to another ; but they ought to do them service be- 
cause they are faithful and beloved, and partakers jointly 
of the common salvation. 

(3.) The servants, or SovXoi,, mentioned in this passage, 
were slaves. In the first verse they are said to be vTto 
^vyov Bov7.oi, servants under the yoke. A servant under the 
yoke is a slave, or a servant in a state of slavery. When 
the Romans and others intended to deprive men of their 
liberty, they made them pass under the yoke. "The 



820 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

yoke is formed of three spears, two being fixed upright 
in the ground, and the other tied across between the 
upper end of them. Under this yoke the Dictator sent 
the ^quani." (Tit. Liv., Lib. Ill, C. 8.) Slavery in 
Scripture is called a yoke. (Lev. xxvi, 13 ; Isaiah ix, 4, 
and X, 27.) 

(4.) It follows that some, holding the legal relation 
of masters, were Christians and members of the Church. 
Thus they were rttaroc, faithful, or believers. They were 
hrethren in the Christian sense of the term, and brethren 
to their Christian slaves ; they were (xyarnqtoi, beloved of 
God, and his followers ; they were *' partakers of the ben- 
efit," or, according to Wesley on the place, they w^ere 
"joint partakers of the great benefit of salvation." These 
believing masters had slaves when they became believers ; 
yet it should be carefully understood that their Christian- 
ity taught them to give full civil liberty to the slaves as 
soon as it could be done to the best advantage of the 
slave, the master retaining the legal tenure only till that 
could be accomplished. In the mean time, the slave was 
a brother, and treated as such. This is the true state of 
the question, as both the apostolic discipline and the 
w^orkings of it in the primitive Churcl\ fully show. 

(5.) Hence, the instructions of Paul to Timothy give 
no support to the system of slavery ; because, 1. He con- 
demns the man-stealer, or, rather, slave-dealer, whether the 
seller, purchaser, or user of the slave, andrapodon, or 
downtrodden man, classing him with the worst sinners. 
And this character embraces all who make merchandise 
of men, in any sense, except to free them. 2. The in- 
junction to slaves to honor unbelieving masters gives no 
countenance to the system as good, as it enjoins honor or 
obedience because God and Christianity would be evil 
spoken of. 3. The obedience to believing masters con- 
siders Christian slaves as brethren — a condition at war 



\ 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 321 

with slavery and utterly subversive of it. 4. The Chris- 
tian masters were believers, beloved, brethren to the slaves, 
partners in the same Christian cause. Such, therefore, 
could not hate but love their servants, who were their 
brethren, and, being Ephesians, observing the instructions 
given by Paul to that Church, in which he required mas- 
ters to treat the slaves with reciprocal kindness, to avoid 
threatening, that the Master of both was in heaven, and 
there is no respect of persons with God. 5. And though 
emancipation is not mentioned in terms, it was to follow 
as soon as justice and equity could accomplish it ; but till 
that point of time the slave was to be treated as a brother. 
6. The subsequent history of the Church shows that such 
was the true position of master and slave in the time of 
the apostles and in the Churches organized and governed 
by them, as the Churches of Corinth, Colosse, Ephesus, 
and Crete. 

6. Titus was left by Paul in the island of Crete "to set 
in order the things that were wanting, and ordain elders 
in every city." Chapter i, 5. Crete was a large island, 
two hundred and fifty miles long and about fifty wide. 
It became a Roman province and abounded in slaves, as 
the greater part of the world then did. In it there were 
many churches, and as Titus was the chief pastor, Paul 
instructs him in the difficult matter connected with slav- 
ery in exercising Church discipline. 

The following is the Pauline teaching to the Churches 
in Crete : *' Exhort servants to be obedient to their own 
masters, and to please them well in all things ; not an- 
SAvering again ; not purloining ; but showing all good 
fidelity ; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our 
Savior in all things." Titus ii, 9, 10. On the forego- 
ing passage we remark : 

(1.) The general duty enjoined on servants, or slaves, 
** obedience to their own masters." This extends to all 



822 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

"honest and lawful things, whether their masters be pagans 
or Christians ; if pagans, not assuming that Christianity 
freed them from their ordinary commands ; if Christian 
masters, not thinking that they had a greater liberty to 
be disobedient. They were, therefore, to please their mas- 
ters well in all things lawful, or wherein it can be done 
without sin. 

(2.) The particular duties enjoined on servants are the 
following : Not answering again, or not contradicting or 
gainsaying the master's just commands, or even when 
blamed unjustly. The state of the servant calls for great 
moderation. 

Servants should be honest, not purloining ; that is, not 
stealing the least thing, nor taking any thing that is their 
master's, which is not allowed by their consent, but 
showing all honesty in every thing. Among the heathen 
slaves theft w^as so common, that fur, a thief, was com- 
monly used to signify a servant, because slaves were gen- 
erally thieves. Paul teaches that slaves should be strictly 
honest in all things, both as it respects their masters and 
others. 

Fidelity was enjoined on slaves. They were to shov/ 
** all good fidelity " in every trust reposed in them, so as 
to speak the truth, and discharge all their duties punctu- 
ally and advantageously to their masters. 

(3.) The reason for this conscientious discharge of 
their duties was, that they might *' adorn the doctrine of 
Grod their Savior in all things." This would render their 
religion amiable and honorable in the eyes of their hea- 
then masters and others, when they Avould see its influ- 
ence on its professors, especially on those in the lower 
walks of life. The history of Christianity furnishes many 
illustrious examples of the conversion of multitudes by 
the Christian walk and conversation of slaves. 

(4.) That the relation of master and slave is the one 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 323 

here intended, is manifest from tlie very instructions given 
to tlie slaves. The duties enjoined were designed to cor- 
rect evils inherent in slavery, such as insubordination, 
stubbornness, impertinence, theft, and perfidy. These 
were leading vices of the system of slavery, and not of 
services done for wages. Such, at least, were not the 
prominent vices of hired servants, as they were of slaves. 
The conclusion is, that the masters and servants spoken 
of here were slaveholders and slaves. 

7. Although we have given the entire of the Pauline 
instructions respecting slaves and their masters, with the 
exception of the Epistle to Philemon, we may also em- 
brace, in connection with the teachings of the missionary 
to the Gentiles, those given by the missionary of the cir- 
cumcision. 

Peter says, ** Servants, [ot oLxs-tai., house-slaves,'] be sub- 
ject to your masters [Ss^Ttorat?, despots] with all fear ; not 
only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward [axo- 
"kioK;, 'perverse ;] for this is thank-worthy, if a man for 
conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrong- 
fully." 1 Peter ii, 18, 19. This is the same in sub- 
stance that Paul gives to Timothy, chapter vi, 1, 2. 

(1.) The slave is bound to obey his master while under 
his authority, not because of any just right the master 
has to hold him in bondage, but because of the benefits 
he receives from him. The master is all the civil magis- 
trate the slave has to protect him, to feed and clothe him. 
For this cause the slave is as much bound to obey his 
master as the subjects of a tyrant are while they enjoy 
his protection. And till Providence presents some way 
of relief, there is no essential difference between the rela- 
tion of a slave to his despotic master, and that of a sub- 
ject to a despotic king. Hence, Peter commands sub- 
jects to submit themselves to every ordinance of man 
for the Lord's sake. (Verse 13.) After continuing the 



324 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

exhortation to some length, he presently recognizes the 
duties of servants, or slaves, to their masters. 

Obedience was enjoined not only to the good and gen- 
tle, but also to the froward or perverse master. Submis- 
sion is not enjoined on the ground that the institution 
was right, but for conscience' sake. The obligation to 
relative duties does not depend on the character of the 
persons to whom they are rendered, or on the performance 
of the duties they owe to us, but on the unalterable rela- 
tions of things as established by God. It was praise- 
worthy for a person to suffer wrongfully, after the manner 
of Christ, ** who, when he was reviled, reviled not again." 
Yerse 23. The apostle refers to those punishments suf- 
fered by slaves as contrary to justice and mercy, while 
they are exhorted to endure them, and suffer patiently, 
though suffering wrongfully. 

(2.) That the servants mentioned here were slaves, we 
have full proof. 1. The epistle was addressed to persons 
scattered throughout Pontus, Gallatia, Cappadocia, x^sia, 
Bythinia, provinces in Asia Minor, where the Grecian 
and Roman systems of slavery prevailed. The word 
oixstr^? here means any one under the authority of an- 
other, particularly household slaves, or servants, as verna, 
familia, domestici, famuli. It is used but four times in 
the New Testament — here, and in Luke xvi, 13, Acts x, 
7, Rom. xiv, 4. The strong presumption is that, in all 
these places, slaves were intended, as they generally per- 
formed the duties now performed by hired servants among 
us. 2. In this passage the house servant must have been 
a slave, because he is instructed to obey with all fear, for 
conscience toward God, to endure it as a grief, and sufferir^g 
wrongfully, after the examjDlc of Christ. Surely these 
accidents can not apply to hired servants, who served by 
contract for wages. 

(3.) The masters, also, or despotai, must have been 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAYEKY. 325 

slave-owners or slaveTiolders, as master is the correspond- 
ing relation to slave^ or one under the power of another, 
whether he is called doulos, oiketes, or andrapodon, as 
among the Greeks, or serviis, mancipium, ancilia, vernay 
famulus, as among the Latins, or slave, or servant, 
among us, when the servant is the property of a master. 

There were two classes of masters here mentioned ; the 
one class comprised the good and gentle, who were Chris- 
tians, who treated their slaves well, held them in trust till 
they could safely emancipate them in conformity to jus- 
tice, and rendering them an equivalent for their services 
till that point of time, according to the Pauline discipline 
to the Colossians. (Col. iv, 1.) The other class of des- 
ptotai were the froward — the cxo^ioi, the perverse, severe, 
and unjust masters, who treated their slaves according to 
the laws of slavery, with little regard to justice. The 
*'good and gentle" class of slaveholders might be called 
masters, but not andrapodistai, slave-dealers. The bad 
men might be called andrajyodistai, slave-dealers, properly 
and characteristically, as well as slaveholders, masters, 
or slave-owners. The master might be a Christian, the 
slave-dealer, or the mercenary slaveholder, never, as Paul 
ranks him with murderers and liars. But he never places 
the mere master — him who sustains that relation with the 
simple view of the slave's good, and his freedom — in this 
category. 

(4.) Surely the apostle Peter gives no support here to 
slavery. The slave is represented as suffering wrongfully , 
and he is exhorted, by the example of Christ, to endure 
this as a tvrong, and not that which is just, or according 
to justice. Can any language more directly than that 
of Peter express the injustice of slavery ? We think not. 



326 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 



CHAPTER XII. 

PAULINE DISCIPLINE — CASE OF ONESIMUS. 

The case of Onesimus will furnish us with an example 
in which the instructions laid down by Paul were applied, 
and which became the model for the Christian Church in 
after times. 

The Epistle to Philemon was not addressed to Phi- 
lemon alone, but also to Apphia, supposed to be his wife, 
and to Archippus, who is supposed to be his son, and to 
the Church in his house. (Verse 1.) It was written 
from Rome, and sent by Paul to Philemon, his family, 
and the Church in his house at Colosse. It appears, from 
verses 1, 10, 13, 23, that it was written when Paul was a 
prisoner, and when he had hopes of obtaining his liberty. 
(Verse 22.) It was written at the same time with the 
Epistle to the Colossians, or about the end of A. D. 63, 
or beginning of 64. For Timothy joins him in both 
epistles. And in both the epistles, Epaphroditus, Mark, 
Demas, and Luke join in the salutations. And Ones- 
imus, who carried this Epistle, was one of the messen- 
gers by whom the Epistle to the Colossians was sent. 
(Col. iv, 9.) The general instructions, therefore, re- 
specting masters and slaves in the Epistle to the Colos- 
sians, must be taken into the account with the particular 
teachings given in the one sent to Philemon, to his wife, 
son, and the Church in his house. 

Philemon appears to have been a person of considera- 
tion in the Church at Colosse, and was converted by the 



PAtJLIXE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 327 

ministiy of Paul — verse 19 — about tlie time when lie ex- 
ercised his ministry at Epliesus. (Acts xix, 10.) He 
had a Church in his house — verse 2 — and was so opulent 
as to be extensive in works of charity, and in entertain- 
in o: those Christians who had occasion to visit Colosse. 
(Verses 5-7.) He was a man of influence in the Church, 
and the historians place him as bishop or chief pastor 
of the Church at Colosse. 

The occasion of writing this letter was the following : 
Onesimus, the servant of Philemon, had, on some pre- 
tense, run away from his master and come to Rome, 
where Paul was then a prisoner. It is likely he was led 
to visit Paul, from having seen him in Colosse at his 
master's house. He became a genuine convert to Chris- 
tianity, and was sedulous to serve Paul in promoting his 
comfort. 

1. The circumstances of this case seem to show that, 
at the date of this Epistle, Onesimus was the legal slave 
of Philemon. As such Paul resolved to send him back 
to his master ; and, to remove all difficulties, wrote to 
the latter this special Ejiistle. 

2. Let us now examine how Philemon was, by Paul's 
instruction, required to receive and treat this slave on his 
return to his master. 

(1.) Philemon was to receive him in the following man- 
ner : "Not now as a servant, [6ov?-oc, a slave,'] but above 
a servant, a brother beloved, especially to me, but how 
much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord ? 
If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as my- 
self. ... I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also 
do more than I say." Verses 16, 17, 21. 

Although Philemon could receive him as his legal slave, 
yet he was besought by Paul to receive him "not now as 
a slave, but above a slave." Formerlv, when neither of 
them were Christians, Philemon might receive him as a 



328 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

slave; but lie could not do that now, as botli were Chris- 
tians, as he must be received above a slave. He must 
receive him — ovxeii^^ bov\ov — not now, no more, no farther, 
no longer, as a slave ; that is, he was now to be elevated 
above the condition of a slave. A slave was in the low- 
est condition in which a human being could be placed, 
and so low were slaves in the eye of the law that they 
could be placed no lower nor no higher, and among them 
there was nothing like grade, or higher or lower, but one 
dead level of the lowest possible position. So says the 
Roman law. ** In the condition of slaves there is no 
difference ; but among free persons there are many divers- 
ities. Thus some are ingenui, or freemen, others libertini, 
or freed-men." (Institutes, Lib. I, Tit. 3, Sec. 5.) Thus 
the first step was taken to rescue a man from slavery 
when he was to be considered above a slave. Thus the 
destruction of slavery commenced when the man was 
only one step raised above this condition, however small. 
All the rest was to follow. He was to be a brother, and 
a brother beloved, both to Paul the apostle and to Phile- 
mon the master. He was to be such in the flesh, or while 
his legal service existed, but especially in the Lord, or as 
a Christian. He was to be received as Paul was received, 
and this was the forerunner of liberty, not by constraint, 
but willingly ; for Philemon was expected to do more 
than Paul said he should do. Let us look at the Chris- 
tian state of brotherhood to which the Christian slave 
was elevated, as a first-fruit of religion. 

(2.) Onesimus is now the brother of his master, the 
brother of Paul, Christ being the elder brother of the 
family. God is the common Father, to whom they are 
all to pray. Our Father. All are redeemed by Jesus 
Christ ; all are sanctified by the same Spirit. Onesimus, 
the slave of Philemon according to the flesh, or Roman 
law, now worships with him in the Church in his house. 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 329 

and he is considered as mucli a Christian and a beloved 
brother as Paul himself. The term brother is a new term 
to be introduced between slave and master. It gives the 
death-blow to slavery, and it is a relation never known 
or used in the slave system. 

(3.) As Philemon was a membel- of the Church at 
Colosse, and from the Epistle conveyed to that Church 
by Onesinius and Tychicus — Col. iv, 7, 10 — he learned 
the instructions given to slaves and masters, he there 
found his own duty laid down in these words, "Masters, 
give to your servants [slaves] that which is just and 
equal, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." 
Col. iv, 1. Justice, according to its demands, would re- 
quire that he should dissolve his relation as master ; and 
equity required that, till this act of justice could take 
place, reciprocal duties and relations should control the 
matter. And the Church, to whom the Epistle was sent, 
was bound to see that this healthy discipline was carried 
out in reference to slaves and masters. 

3. Let us see here the leading points in Paul's argu- 
ment in favor of Onesimus. Paul had given command on 
the subject of slavery in his Epistle to the Colossians, 
and which was addressed to Philemon as well as other 
members of the Church at Colosse. He was, therefore, 
in possession of this special law, command, or injunction, 
in regard to the matter, which required justice and equity 
on his part toward Onesimus. Paul, in his letter to Phi- 
lemon, omits the injunction as unnecessary to be repeated, 
and proceeds to entreaty : "I rather beseech thee." He 
brings to view the Christian character and privileges of 
Philemon, and calls him dearly-beloved and fellow- 
laborer. He congratulates him for the '' Church in his 
house," for his love and fidelity to Christ and all saints, 
and that the bowels of the saints were refreshed by his 

bounty. He represents himself as prisoner of Jesus 

28 



330 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

Christ, and Paul the aged. Onesimus is Ms son, wlio 
was converted by liis ministry, who was once unprofita- 
ble as a servant, but now may be relied on for honesty, 
veracity, and fidelity, that he is now a Christian and a 
beloved brother. He then pleads that Onesimus should 
be received as Paul himself, and treated with brotherly 
regard. He promises to pay for any wrong done by 
Onesimus, or had he improperly, in his days of sin, 
squandered his peculium, that he would repay all. He 
expresses his confidence that Philemon would do more 
than he requested him to do ; and, to enlist him fully, he 
requests him further to provide a lodging for him, as he 
trusted that, through the prayers of Philemon, he would 
be permitted to pay him the intended visit. It was with 
such addresses as this that the primitive Christians made 
their pleas in behalf of those who were in bonds, as 
bound with them ; and all know how admirably they 
succeeded in promoting freedom and the elevation of 
their race. 

4. Now what was the effect of the instructions of Paul 
in this case, in reference to the freedom of Onesimus ? 
The result was his emancipation from slavery. Of this 
we have sufficient historical data to assure us of it as a 
matter of fact. This is attested by the apostolical con- 
stitutions, and apostolical canons, which we have already 
quoted. And this is the concurrent testimony of antiq- 
uity on the subject. This is delicately hinted at by Paul, 
where he says, "Knowing that thou wilt also do more 
than I say." Verse 21. He did not in terms enjoin 
emancipation, but he knew, that this result would follow, 
and he therefore leaves it to be wroug-ht out from the 
moral and religious principles which he inculcated on the 
subject, and the spirit of Christianity ; for as there was a 
willy there would be found a loo.y, to execute it. This the 
history of Christianity attests. 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 331 

5. The disciplinaiy example of the case of Philemon 
and Onesimus, gives no support to slavery, but on the 
other hand is subversive of it. If those who are slaves 
would become Christians, and their masters would treat 
them not now, or no more as slaves, but brethren beloved, 
as above slaves, the result would be freedom. And though 
the slaves, under the teachings of Christianity, would be 
more faithful slaves while they were slaves, the treatment 
of them as brothers would soon lead to freedom. This, 
too, is history. ' 

What would we think of Philemon, had he neglected 
Paul's instructions and entreaty, and treated Onesimus 
according to the slave laivs ? For example, had he 
whipped him first for running away, and then sold him 
to a slave-dealer, and sold his wife and children to the 
highest bidder, would he be tolerated in the Christian 
Church, after selling his brother and putting the money 
in his pocket? By no means. The primitive Church 
had no such custom among them, and no such conduct 
Avould be tolerated. And can our Christians who reject 
the discipline and principles laid down by Paul, be con- 
sidered as any other than wicked, who buy and sell their 
fellow-men, and live on their labor without remunera- 
tion ? Every Christian is bound to do like Philemon, to 
treat the slave as a brother, w^hile he is a slave, and grant 
him his freedom with as little delay as the law will allow, 
or the circumstances of the case require. Nothing short 
of this is Christianity. How can any Christian come to 
his dying pillow, and leave slaves to others to inherit 
them, when emancipation is within his reach, even 
though it would be necessary to remove them to an- 
other country or state ? Even this is not too much to 
do for freedom. 



332 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

PAULINE DISCIPLINE— GENERAL SURVEY. 

It is time now to take a general survey of the princi- 
ples and discipline of the Pauline instructions to masters 
and servants. 

1. The apostle acknowledged some masters to he true 
Christians — such masters as sustained the legal relation, 
not for gain, but with a view to the good of the slave, 
and his ultimate freedom. 

2. It appears evident that such masters were admitted 
to Church membership in the Churches founded and 
governed by the apostles. 

3. The great endeavor of the apostolic preaching, as 
relating to slavery, seems to have been to bring slaves 
and masters to an intellectual, experimental, and prac- 
tical knowledge of the truth — to assign to each their 
respective duties, and lay down those great principles of 
right and wrong, which would inevitably issue in eman- 
cipation, and meanwhile correct, so far as possible, the 
moral evils of the system in reference to slaves and mas- 
ters, respectively. 

If, in their preaching, the apostles seem not to dwell 
largely on the evils of slavery itself, this may, in part at 
least, be accounted for from the fact that these evils were 
evident to all persons taught in the principles of the 
Gospel. The influence of the perfect love of God and 
man — the comprehensive beneficence begotten by Chris- 
tianity — the union in one common brotherhood — having 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE (TN SLAVERY. 333 

one God — one Savior and Sanctifier — one common inher- 
itance of grace here, and of glory hereafter — all con- 
spired to bring about one result — the civil freedom of the 
slave, and the elevation of both slave and master to the 
higher freedom of the sons of God. 

4. Paul enjoined duties to masters and slaves while 
both remained in this relation, of master and slave to 
each other. The passages quoted, at a preceding page, 
from Paul, show that certain duties were required from 
masters and slaves while in that relation, or while it con- 
tinued. Masters are enjoined — Ephesians vi, 9 — to do 
the ''same things" to their slaves which had been en- 
joined on them ; that is, they were to exhibit the same 
kindness, fidelity, and regard to the will of God. They 
were to "forbear threatening," or to "disuse threaten- 
ing," and not govern by terror, but by love and kindness. 
They were urged by the consideration that they had a 
Master in heaven, who had no respect of persons. 

Masters were recpired to "give unto their servants that 
which is just and equal, remembering that they had also 
a Master in heaven." Colossians iv, 1. 

Philemon was entreated by Paul to receive his slave 
Onesimus not now, or ovxe-ev, no more, no longer, as a 
slave, but above a slave, a brother beloved, the brother 
of himself and Paul — as Paul himself. As a member 
of the Colossian Church he was commanded to render to 
him according to justice and equity. He was entreated 
to receive him as a beloved Christian brother, with the 
command to render to him afterward that which was 
just and equal. (Philemon 16.) 

5. The duties of slaves to their masters show that these 
duties were enjoined on them while in a state of slavery, 
to be performed to their legal masters, whether Christians 
or heathen. The texts enforcino: those duties have been 
quoted. Obedience or all honor to the masters is enjoined 



334 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

in all things. This is limited to the will of God, or the 
precepts of morality. Service is a labor to be rendered 
to the master, with the same restraint as it is to be unto 
Christ, as unto the Lord. Fidelity or trustworthiness for 
the interests of the master is required, so as to be honest 
and faithful to all trusts reposed in them. 

Besides, these slaves were slaves properly so called, 
and though they became brethren to their masters, they 
still continued to be legal slaves till emancipation took 
place. 

6. In the list of duties of slaves and their masters in 
reference to each other, we have certain privileges belong- 
ing to each in this relation. The master was privileged 
with obedience, service, and fidelity from the slave, in con- 
formity to the moral laws of God and Christianity ; and 
the slave had his privileges also. He looked for justice, 
equity, and love, or brotherhood, from the master, and the 
cessation of threatening, or the use of the whip. 

But these mutual duties and privileges would reduce 
slavery gradually to lawful service, which w^as certainly 
the intention of Paul in his code, as was the intention 
in the Abrahamic administration. Emancipation would 
come in, as a consequence. 

As Paul, in giving his instructions to masters and 
slaves, does it in connection with his instructions to hus- 
bands and w^ves, parents and children, it is inferred by 
some, that he therefore sanctions slavery. But the con- 
trary will appear on careful examination. It is true that 
he gives the instructions to slaves and masters in connec- 
tion with the relations of husbands and wives, parents 
and children, in the following places, namely : In his 
Epistle to the Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians. 
It is confessed on all hands that the parental and filial 
relations were established by almighty God. And if the 
instructions and laws of these relations are subversive of 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 335 

slavery, the latter can not he of God. Now this is the 
case. Marriage is appointed of God, or the union of one 
man and one woman till death. Wherever legal mar- 
riage is there is no slavery, properly so called, at least no 
Roman slavery. This cnts up by the roots the contuber- 
nium, or polygamy, of slavery. Besides, children are to 
obey their parents in preference to their masters. They can 
not obey both ; therefore, they must obey their parents. 
Parents, too, are to bring up their children in the nurture 
and admonition, or in the instruction and discipline, of 
the Lord. This takes them away from the hands of all 
others. So that the establishment of marriage and the 
parental and filial relations are at irreconcilable variance 
with slavery. And as God has established these he never 
established nor sanctioned slavery, which is a perversion 
of just service, as polygamy, concubinage, and contuher- 
nium are perversions of lawful marriage ; and lawful mar- 
riage being established, the others necessarily are annihi- 
lated or entirely superseded, as enormities that can not be 
tolerated by the morals of the Gospel. 

7. Hence, the legislation of Paul in reference to 
slavery would restore service to its original and just con- 
dition, by removing those abuses which slavery intro- 
duced. This was done, as we have seen, by the Mosaic 
code. The instructions of Paul to masters and slaves 
would apply substantially to employers and hired serv- 
ants ; and, indeed, most theologians have applied the 
instructions, with great propriety, to masters and hired 
servants in countries where slavery does not exist. All 
employers are bound to render to persons in their employ 
according to justice and equity, as well as to forbear or 
disuse threatening, and treat them as brethren, fellow- 
men, with civility and love. They are privileged, too, to 
have their commands about their business executed as 
they wish, and they ought to have the proportion of labor 






836 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

or service agreed on performed. All servants or persons 
in employ are also bound to ohey these commands, to do 
the amount of Avork, and to do it honestly and with 
fidelity. They are privileged, too, to receive their wages 
and civil and respectful treatment. 

Besides, the apostle Paul lays down no laws or rules 
to institute or maintain slavery proper. He lays down 
no rules about buying and selling men, and the endless 
moral wrongs of the slave system. And while he omits 
all such rules and enjoins only what is just and right, he 
neither sanctions, supports, nor sustains slavery by any 
instructions he has given to slaves and masters. Does 
Paul give instructions to man-stealers or slave-dealers to 
prosecute their business ? Certainly not, as these were 
willful transgressors. But some masters, or owners of 
slaves, may have no act whatever or no will, in becoming 
slaveholders ; and such, so far, can not be guilty of any 
willful, wrong act. Their future course is to decide this 
question of right and wrong on their part. 

Paul made laws for the master, as responsible to God, 
and not for slavery. He made laws for the slave as a 
redeemed man and a sufferer, but not for the perpetuity 
of the system which oppressed him. This does not prove 
that Paul approved of the system. Paul made a law 
respecting the relation between Nero and his subjects — 
Romans xiii, 1-7 — yet he certainly did not teach by this 
that his government and laws were good and just. Paul 
considered slaA^ery as a hard condition, from which he 
exhorts all who can to be free, and that none who are 
free from it should willingly enter on it. So he ex- 
horted Christians to bear persecution ; but certainly he 
did not approve of persecution. 

8. Paul, in his instructions to slaves and masters, gives 
no sanction or approval to the system of slavery. 

(1.) In order to present the subject clearly, let us select 



J>AULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 337 

some of the leading elements of the slave system that 
then prevailed, which was Roman slavery, seeing Rome 
then governed the civilized world, comprising all the ter- 
ritory in which Churches were formed, and, of course, 
those Churches which Paul instructs on this subject. In 
our chapter on Roman slavery we gave a pretty full out- 
line of the system. We may select the leading points. 
The principal modes by which persons became slaves 
were, by war in selling the captives, by kidnapping and 
commerce ; some were born slaves ; some sold them- 
selves for slaves ; others became slaves in consequence 
of their crimes. 

As to the state of the slaves, they were held pro mdl'is, 
'pro mortuis, pro quadrupedibus . They were entirely under 
the power of their masters, who could put them to death, 
torture, correct them, or dispose of them at pleasure. 
They were property, and could be sold, bartered, leased, 
given by will, or otherwise disposed of. They could have 
no property, and could not take by will, purchase, or 
descent. They were not entitled to the rights of matri- 
mony, had no relief in case of adultery, nor were they 
proper objects of cognation, so as to stand in the relation 
of parent and child, husband and wife. They could not 
be witnesses. The master might or might not manumit, 
so that the slave could not secure freedom without the 
consent of his master. Such are some of the leading 
elements of Roman slavery. -- 

(2.) Now, we ask, where did Paul, in treating on this 
subject, expressly say any thing to support this system ? 
Certainly no where. He does not, it is true, single out 
these points, as all such were clearly, in many places, de- 
nounced by the word of God. And yet, in classing the 
slave-dealer with the worst of men, he condemns the 
whole system in which he traffics. The instructions of 

Paul, without exception, give no countenance to the 

29 



338 THE BIBLE AND SLAVEKY. 

leading elements of slavery — where does lie sanction any 
one of the modes of enslaving men ? — while his teach- 
ings to masters and slaves would do away the essential 
parts of slavery, and would, by this means, transform 
it into a just service, and thus supersede slavery by that 
which slavery had perverted from its just and original 
condition. 

(3.) The instructions to masters give no countenance 
to slavery. 

The duties of masters are given in two short texts — 
Eph. vi, 9 ; Col. iv, 1 — which require that masters should 
treat slaves as they would be treated, that they should not 
threaten or w^hip, that they would render justice and equity 
to the slave ; and the reasons for their course were, that 
they had a Master in heaven over them, whose laws must 
be obeyed, and with whom there was no respect of per- 
sons, so as to distinguish between master and slave. 
None of these precepts teach or tolerate that masters 
should consider their legal slaves as nothing, as dead 
persons, as beasts ; that they had any moral right to 
hold them in bondage ; to annul marriage, and break up 
the parental and filial relation ; to put them to death, 
torture, and whip them ; to sell, give, barter, or will 
them ; to receive the profits of their unrequited labors ; 
to make all their religious privileges to depend on his 
will, etc. The teachings of Paul grant no such rights to 
masters ; and though, while the relation must exist, the 
master has the power to govern and to require service, ac- 
cording to the rule of reciprocal right only, yet Paul's 
laws of privileges and duties to the master give him not 
one of those as rights which go to constitute slavery 
proper. And the lessons given the masters will, in due 
time, lead to emancipation, as an inevitable result, by 
the application of the principles and duties laid down. 
It is preposterous to think that Paul's instructions to 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 339 

raasters would tolerate them in treating a brother Chris- 
tian, or a brother man, as property, or a thing, so as to 
sell his brother, or treat him as the slave system of Rome 
allowed him to be treated. 

(4.) No argument in favor of slavery can be drawn 
from the instructions of Paul to slaves themselves. The 
passages have all been already quoted, and are the fol- 
lowing : 1 Corinthians vii, 20-24 ; Ephesians vi, 5-8 ; 
Colossians iii, 22-25; 1 Timothy vi, 1-5; Titus ii, 9, 
10. In the first passage the slaves are taught to obtain 
their freedom, if they lawfully can, and if they are free 
not to consent to be slaves. In the other passages they 
are taught to be obedient to the lawful commands of their 
masters, to render service to them with fidelity. The 
main duties are patience, meekness, fidelity, kindness, 
truth, and honesty — duties obligatory to all men. There 
were vices which they were to avoid, such as pilfering, 
lying, and eye-service ; and the apostle enjoins on them, 
as Christians, to avoid these. They were to do all this 
in obedience to God, or *' as unto Christ," ** as the 
servants of Christ," "as to the Lord," "fearing God." 
They were to do right — to do no wrong. They, too, had 
the privileges from their Christian masters, to be treated 
as brethren, according to the law of love, with justice, 
equal rights, etc. 

(5.) Surely these duties enjoined on slaves, and the 
privileges growing out of the instructions of Paul, never 
could recognize the claim that these slaves should still be 
considered and treated as things — as projDcrty — as beasts, 
as having no right to marriage, or that their children 
must not obey them — that they may be sold, bartered, 
killed, tortured, whipped, work for nothing, etc. All 
this is simply preposterous. Indeed, the right of the 
master to slaves is never conceded or even referred to. 
; The obligation of obedience is never based on the ground 



840 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

that slavery is right, but, on the other hand, that it is 
wrong, being unjust and unequal. 

9. The principles and duties prescribed by Paul, in 
reference to masters and slaves, are opposed to slavery, 
and, if carried out, would secure its abolition. 

The supreme sovereignty of God over all human be- 
ings, and the laws he has given to govern mankind, pre- 
sent a direct antagonism to slavery. The instructions of 
Paul very clearly bring this to view. He addresses mas- 
ters thus : "Knowing that your Master also is in heaven;'* 
or as some copies read, "Knowing that both your and 
their Master is in heaven." Ephesians vi, 9. Servants 
are to be " obedient, as unto Christ." Verse 5. They 
are to serve, but it is " as the servants of Christ." Verse 
6. They are to serve and " do the will of God from the 
heart." Verse 6. The servant is represented as " called 
in the Lord;" is the "Lord's freed-man," artexevdspos ; is 
"Christ's doulos, or slave." 1 Corinthians vii, 22. In 
his service he is " therein to abide with God." Verse 24. 
To the Colossians Paul says, in referring to the obedience 
of slaves, " Servants, obey — fearing God." Colossians 
iii, 22. " Do it heartily as to the Lord and not to man." 
Verse 23. They will " receive the inheritance from the 
Lord;" and they "serve the Lord Christ." Verse 24. 
They are exhorted to honor their masters, "that the 
name of God and his doctrine be not blamed." 1 Tim. 
vi, 1. They are exhorted to obey for the sake of religion, 
or that " they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior 
in all things." Titus ii, 10. Onesimus was "a brother 
beloved in the Lord." Philemon 16. Paul beseeches 
Philemon, in regard to his slave Onesimus, " let me 
have joy of thee in the Lord," and " refresh my bowels 
in the Lord." Verse 20. And Peter exhorts slaves to 
endure their hard lot, "for conscience toward God, 
enduring grief, suffering wrongfully." 1 Peter ii, 19. 






PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 341 

From the foregoing it will be seen that the obedience 
and service of the slave must be referred to the sovereign 
authority of God, with no reference to any rights of the 
master other than as governed by the will of God, in 
honor of him, for the sake of religion, as a matter of 
conscience. And all this in reference to those things 
which comprise moral or social acts, as of obedience to 
just commands, and rendering a reasonable service. And 
all this, too, only for a time, or till freedom could inter- 
vene. The leading elements of slavery are here neces- 
sarily omitted, such as unequaled toil, rejection of mar- 
riage and filial or parental obligations, sale and purchase 
of the slaves, that they are j>ro nullis, ^;ro moriuis, pro 
quadrupedlbus, and the like. 

Chrysostom, on 1 Corinthians vii, 23, has a very 
appropriate remark on this point. " There are limits set 
to slaves by God himself; and up to what point one 
ought to keep them, this is also exacted, and to transgress 
them is wrong ; namely, when your master commands 
nothing which is unpleasing to God, it is right to follow 
and obey, but no further. For thus the slave becomes 
free. But, if you go further, even though you are free, 
you are become a slave." 

10. Doing good is enjoined on all, both slaves and 
masters, as part of the system of instructions given on 
the subject. ''Knowing that whatsoever good thing any 
man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord." 
Ephesians vi, 8. Our blessed Lord went about doing 
good. Christians are to be employed in well-doing. 
We might simply ask, if only good acts were to be per- 
formed, how could slavery ever have existed ? Or, how 
long would it last in the performance of that which is 
good on the part of masters and slaves ? It was a law- 
ful act, under Roman slavery, to kill the slave. Surely 
this was not good. And if well-doing were applied to 



842 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

tlie system of Roman slavery, nothing of it would be 
left, but that of which it was a perversion ; namely, 
legitimate, honest, free labor. The same text applied to 
American slavery, would issue in the same result entirely. 
" Cleave to that which is good," is a command that 
would annihilate the system in short order. 

11. The apostle of the Gentiles, the Roman citizen, 
too, in his official teaching concerning slavery, masters, 
and slaves, declares that no one, whether slave or master, 
can do wrong without suffering the penalty inflicted on 
sinners. ** But he that doeth wrong shall suffer for the 
wrong; and there is no respect of persons." Colossians 

111, 25. Or, O §a aScxwi', xofiiittao 6 •yjbLxr^as. " He that 

doeth unjustly, shall suffer for the injustice." Doing 
wrong, or acting unjustly, is condemned, whether to 
masters or slaves. Slavery is contrary to natural law, or 
to justice, which "renders to every man his due." The 
precepts of justice are, " to live honestly, to hurt no one, 
to give every one his due." (Institutes, I, 1, 1.) Now, 
injustice, or wrong, is the opposite of justice, or right. 
Slavery does not give every one his own, as it de- 
prives the slave of his liberty, his personal security, 
and the fruit of his labors. It furthermore hurts the 
slave, by stripes, severe labor, degradation, and dishonor. 
It hurts him in his good name, his property, and his per- 
son. The slaveholder does not live honorably, as he lives 
by injuring others, and by their labor, skill, and suffer- 
ings. Hence he is said to be o aStxwv, one who doetk 
wrong, or who acts unjustly, from a, not, and 6txw, to be 
just. Or he acts avft hixriv, contrary to justice, or avtv to 
5t;catov, contrary to that which is just. The voluntary slave- 
holder acts contrary to justice, and Paul requires all 
slaveholders to act according to justice, or according to that 
which is just. And slavery is contrary to jus 7iaturale, 
natural right or justice, and is therefore unjust. All men 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 343 

are born free. He tliat makes slaves of cliildren, as soon 
as they are born, whether by the help of law, or by theft, 
or force, is iinjust. 

Now, it is^jrod's law, that *'he who does wrong will 
suffer for the wrong," and as a confirmation of it there 
is *'no respect of persons." Slaves are poor, and God 
will punish those who make or keep them poor by en- 
slaving them. Especially will God avenge the contu- 
bernium of slavery, the ignoring the paternal and filial 
relations, selling men, women, and children, like beasts, 
and all the other wrongs of the system of slavery, which 
is properly a malum in se. Now, separate doing wrong 
from the system of slavery, and the system is destroyed 
by the process. 

12. The equality of the human race, or the common 
nature of man, is taught by Paul in his instructions to 
slaves and masters. In regard to slaves he says, when 
teaching that he w^ho does wrong shall receive for the 
wrong, that "there is no respect of persons." Colos- 
sians ii, 25. In enjoining on masters reciprocal acts of 
justice to the slaves, he says, " Neither is there respect of 
persons with him." Ephesians vi, 9. Human nature is 
one, and it is a common possession. Hence, according 
to natural law, all men are born equal, and have equal 
rights. Hence, all men are entitled to their natural rights 
of personal liberty, personal security, and the right of 
holding property. With God there is no such respect 
of persons as slavery induces. All have one common 
father — all are partakers of the same nature — all are 
equally redeemed — all partake of a common salvation, 
and all are heirs to the same inheritance. The teaching 
of Paul to slaves and masters, in declaring, in reference 
to this very point, that there is no respect of persons, 
shows plainly, though in general terms, that slavery does 
respect persons in an unjust way, and is therefore wrong. 



344 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

13. Paul strictly enjoins the brotherhood of man, in 
reference to slavery. "And they that have believing 
masters, let them not despise them, because they are 
brethren." 1 Timothy vi, 2. Paul teachi^ Philemon to 
receive or treat his slave Onesimus, not now, ovxfti, not 
any more, *' as a slave, but as a brother." Philemon 
verse 16. All Christians are to be regarded as brethren. 
*' One is your master \_xa9rjyyjtrji, leader,^ and all ye are 
brethren." Matthew xxiii, 8. This is the uniform lan- 
guage of the New Testament. To apply the terms breth- 
ren and sisters to slaves, initiates a new element into the 
subject unknown to all slave laws, and all slavery princi- 
ples. In the West Indies the pro-slavery men, during the 
controversy there from 1808 to 1833, ridiculed the idea 
of brothers and sisters among the missionary Churches. 
They asked, "Can you make your negroes Christians, 
and use the words dear brother or sister, to those you hold 
in bondage ? They would conceive themselves, by possi- 
bility, put on a level with yourselves, and the chains of 
slavery would be broken." It would be strange work in 
a Christian Church to see Christians killing, beating 
severely, selling, giving away to prostitution, their slaves, 
as the Roman laws authorized. Indeed, the exercise of 
the slavery code of any law is at variance with the broth- 
erhood of man and of Christianity. And so Paul 
teaches, when he says, receive him no longer as a slave, 
but above a slave, a brother beloved. 

14. Paul introduces redemption as a reason why no 
freed-man, or freeman, should agree to become a slave. 
He says, " Ye are bought with a price ; do not become 
the slaves of men." 1 Corinthians vii, 23. The rea- 
sons for this are obvious. Slavery sits very uneasily on 
the freed-man of Christ, as it brings with it many evils, 
snares, dangers, and disabilities. Because Christians are 
bought with a price they are bound to "glorify God in 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 345 

their body and spirit, which are God's." Their bodies 
are represented to be the ''temple of God;" "the tem- 
ple of the Holy Ghost ;" which show they are bodily 
consecrated to God. It is hard to approve of a Christian, 
redeemed by Christ, as holding his brother in bondage, 
regarding him as property, and proceed to prostrate in 
the dust the relation of husband, father, son, and Chris- 
tian. In connection with slavery Paul says, '' The grace 
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 
or all conditions of men." Titus ii, 11. The following 
addresses to Philemon do not well comport with the 
exercise of slave laws : ** I beseech thee for my son 
Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds ;" "Re- 
ceive him as myself ;" " He is my bowels." 

15. If we examine the instructions given by Paul to 
masters, we shall find nothing in them that would either 
establish or continue any length of time the system of 
slavery, but on the other hand, that which would gradu- 
ally destroy it as a system, and in the mean time would 
commence and carry on the good work of emancipation. 
We arrange here, as follows, the instructions given to 
slaveholders : 1. They were to render to their slaves 
according to justice. 2. They were to render to them 
equity, or reciprocal rights. 3. They were to disuse 
threatening, or the use of the whip. 4. And the prlvile(/es 
due them growing out of the duties enjoined on slaves. 

(1.) Masters are taught to render to their slaves, to 
8oxaiov, that which is just, or rather xata to Stxacov, accord.- 
ing to that lohich is just. The bixavo^, just, upright, is one 
who does right ; while o otyaOoj, the good, is one who does 
good, Si, benefactor. Cicero defines justice thus, "Justice, 
from which virtue alone men are called good" — ''justitiay 
ex qua una virtute boni viri airpellantur'^ (Cicero Off., 2, 
10.) "Justice, to which belong piety, goodness, liber- 
ality, benignity, comity, and others of the like sort" — 



346 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

"justitia . . . cui adjuncta sunt pietas, bonitas, liberali- 
tas, benignitas, coniitas, quaque sunt genus ejusdem.^* (De 
Fin., 5, 23.) Justice, according to the Roman law, as we 
have seen, is the ** constant and perpetual disposition to 
render to every man his due." It has respect to **what 
is just and unjust." Its precepts are " to live honestly, 
to hurt no one, to give every one his due." The slave- 
holder is required to render to the slave his due, not to 
hurt him, and to live honorably in respect to him. 

Besides, all are instructed, in regard to slavery, to do 
no wrong, or no injustice. For o a5cxwj/, he that doeth 
unjustly, shall receive or bear the sin of doing unjustly. 

Hence, in regard to slaveholders, they are required to 
do justly toward their slaves, and to do them no wrong. 
In the last verse of chapter iii, to the Colossians, all 
a6t*ia, injustice y or wrong, is expressly forbidden. And 
then in the following verse — chapter iv, 1 — the slave- 
holder is instructed to render to the slave that which is 
just, or according to that ivhich is just. Justice secures to 
all life, liberty, personal security, the right of property, the 
pursuit of happiness. To these we may add the rights 
of marriage, of parents and children, of husbands and 
wives, of worship, of education, etc. 

According to justice the life of man is sacred and 
inviolable. The Roman master could kill the slave when, 
and as he chose. He could throw him to the fishes — 
make him fight with wild beasts — convert him into a 
gladiator — expose him, on an island of the Tiber, to 
starve, or kill or maim him in any other way. This was 
the Roman law in Paul's day. In after times this power 
was restrained, although the restraint was inefficient. 
Was this murder of God ? Personal liberty is the right 
of all men, and required by justice. All men are born 
free and equal, according to the Roman law, and accord- 
ing to the Bible, and the Declaration of Independence, 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 347 

and the Constitution of the United States. The slave- 
holder is bound to give liberty to the slave, as his deten- 
tion is an act of injustice, a wrong ; and he that doeth 
wrong shall receive for the wrong. 

The slave, according to justice, is entitled to personal 
security. Slavery assaults his person often with stripes, 
hunger, cold, degradation, and exposure. Justice forbids 
this ; therefore, the slaveholder is bound to restore and 
secure to the slave his security from the insults of the 
overseer, himself, or any other in his name. 

According to justice, a man who earns property by his 
skill, his labor, his self-denial, and economy is entitled to 
own that property. But slavery allows no property to 
belong to the slave, as a matter of right, or justice, al- 
though it is earned by his industry or skill. As to the 
pecuUum of Roman slavery, it was allowed by indulgence^ 
and not by right, and was always liable to be seized by 
the master. Justice gives to the slave his own earnings, 
and this being granted, the master must relinquish all 
right to the slave's earnings beyond an equivalent for 
what he gives him. 

All men have the right of marriage, by the law of 
God. The master must grant this in justice, and do 
away with servile contuhernium. Then husbands and 
wives must remain united, performing the duties of each. 
Children must obey their parents, and parents must gov- 
ern their children. All this is according to justice, and 
it grants this to all men. This undermines completely 
the power of the master, and restores it to the original 
owners. The master must not separate man and wife by 
sale, or otherwise. The parents must teach and govern 
their children, which overthrows greatly the power of the 
master. Indeed, slavery, whether Roman or American, 
knows no father, no marriage, no husband, no wife, no 
child of any father ; and as justice secures these rela- 



848 THE BIBLE AND SLAVEEY. 

tions, and masters are bound to render it, slavery perishes 
under the administration of justice, in following out the 
precepts of the marriage relation in regard to husbands 
and wives, parents and children. 

Now, as the exercise of justice secures to slaves life, 
liberty, security, property, marriage, and what belong to 
them, it is plain that it is against slavery. And as it is 
wrong, or unjust, to deprive any one of these, the re- 
quirements of justice are against slavery. 

(2.) The master is taught to observe the golden rule 
in regard to any slave he may by law possess : * All things 
whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even 
so to them.'* Matt, vii, 12. This law is enjoined on the 
slaveholder. He is bound to render to the slave that 
which is equal — isoty^ta, eqiiality, or an equivalent, from 
KTof, equal, the same. Masters are required to render their 
slaves a just equivalent for their services. This is further 
confirmed by the command to masters, *' Do the same 
things to them." Eph. vi, 9. No one imder the influ- 
ence of the law of love or the law of reciprocal right 
would ever make a man a slave, or continue him as a 
slave, or treat him as a slave, except just so far as to 
release him from slavery. The relation itself, if volun- 
tarily assumed, and with recognition of property in the 
slave, is sinful, and this relation is always to be dissolved 
with the least possible delay, and can not be sustained 
except to destroy it. 

(3.) Masters are required to ** forbear [or moderate] 
threatening." Eph. vi, 9. Robinson renders the phrase, 
av(,ivt£i trjv aTiscJirjv, leaving of, or ceasing from threatening. 
Dr. Clarke says the words ** signify to mitigate, relax, or 
not exact threatening ; that is, the threatened punish- 
ment." This teaches the disuse of threats and punish- 
ments, and calls for the substitution of love and remu- 
neration. The whip, stocks, screws, hand-cuffs, chains. 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 349 

prisons, patrols, are the necessary accompaniments of 
slavery. Paul commands the disuse of these among 
Christians, and in doing so, he commands the disuse of 
slavery, practically, immediately, and legally, as soon as 
the nature of the case will allow, and the interests of the 
slave demand. 

(4.) As to the privilege of the masters corresponding 
to the obedience enjoined on slaves, and the services of 
labor to the masters, we observe that the system of slav- 
ery can find no support from these privileges ; because 
the master is not allowed to command any thing wrong, 
false, immoral, oppressive, or at variance with justice ; 
and the servant must obey God rather than man in all 
these things. And as to services rendered, they must be 
also tempered with justice, and a just remuneration must 
be given to the slave. This would reduce slavery to law- 
ful and just service in its practical operation. 

On the part, therefore, of the master, he is to render, 
give, to his slaves, according to the demand of justice, 
which renders to each his own, and hurts no one. This 
secures to the slave the rights of life, liberty, personal 
security, the ownership of the property secured by his 
skill and labor, the rights of marriage, of husbands and 
wives, of parents and children, and the rights of educa- 
tion and religion. It is unjust to withhold or wrest away 
any of these rights, according to Paul's teaching to 
masters and slaves. So the right to hold a slave is an 
unjust, usurped right, though established by law. The 
master is bound to relinquish at once the justice of his 
claim, and, till it is in his power to free him, render to 
the slave a just equivalent for his labors as to a hired serv- 
ant, and never attempt by gift, will, sale, or otherwise, to 
transfer the servant, bound in chains, to any human being, 
whether son, daughter, or other person. Such is the 
amount of Paul's instructions to slaveholders. 



350 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

16. If we consider tlie instructions given to slaves by 
Paul, we shall find nothing in them that would originate 
or continue slavery any longer than to dissolve its bonds 
in the manner best calculated to set at liberty the captives. 
This will appear if we consider, 1. The obedience en- 
joined; 2. The service or work to be rendered; 3. The 
vices they are to shun ; 4. And their privileges, arising 
from the injunctions to their masters. 

(1.) The duty of obedience or submission to the com- 
mands of their masters is enjoined on slaves in the fol- 
lowing lessons of teaching : ** Servants, be obedient to 
your masters according to the flesh," Eph. vi, 5 ; *' Serv- 
ants, obey your masters in all things according to the 
flesh," Col. iii, 22 ; "Count your masters worthy of all 
honor. . . . Let them not despise believing masters ;" 
1 Tim. vi, 1, 2 ; " Exhort servants to be obedient to their 
own masters," Titus iii, 9 ; '* Servants, be subject to your 
own masters with all fear ; not only to the good and gen- 
tle, but also to the froward," 1 Peter ii, 18. 

Now, look at the motives or reasons for this obedience 
to the commands of masters. They were to consider 
themselves as the " servants of Christ ;" that they were 
"bought with a price ;" were "heirs of an inheritance ;" 
they were to do the "will of God," to obey as "unto 
Christ," and " to the Lord ;" they were to obey, that the 
" name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed," and 
that they might adorn the doctrine of " God their Savior 
in all things." 

Obviously, here is no right of the master recognized 
in all this ; but the supreme law of God is to govern in 
all things ; and the interests of religion, and not the mere 
commands of the master, are the controlling reasons. 
God's laws of right and wrong must govern the slave as 
well as the master. No wrong or injustice is to rule. 
The motives are all moral and religious ones, such as are 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 351 

incumbent even on persons suffering persecution, or living 
under unjust laws. 

(2.) The duty of service, or laboring for the master, is 
pointed out in the following language : ** With good will 
doing service," Eph. vi, 7 ; "Not with eye-service," Col. 
iii, 22; "Bather do them service," 1 Tim. vi, 2; "To 
please them well in all things," Titus ii, 9. The motives 
or reasons connected with this service are of the religious 
and moral sort. There is nothing like a debt or moral 
obligation to serve their masters, other than the reciprocal 
obligations of justice and remuneration demand. 

(3.) Honesty, fidelity, and honor were enjoined on the 
slaves. These are enjoined on all relations. And as 
theft, treachery, and insubordination are the vices insep- 
arable from slavery, the slaves are commanded to shun 
these because they are wrong in themselves ; they are con- 
trary to the rule of reciprocal retribution to the masters 
for food, clothing, protection, etc., and it is necessary for 
them to shun these vices, as they disqualify them for free- 
dom, to which they were now on the way, through the 
influence of their religion. 

(4.) As to the privileges of slaves, growing out of the 
duties of masters toward them, they were entitled to jus- 
tice, as we have seen, to kindness, remuneration, broth- 
erhood, and other benefits, as well as the disuse of the 
lash and all bodily punishments. 

17. As to emancipation, some observations may be 
given here on that subject. It is worthy of remark that, 
among the direct instructions given to masters, there is 
no injunction requiring, in terms, the civil emancipation, 
although the duties of masters, as enjoined by Paul in 
requiring justice, equity, the disuse of cruelty, the require- 
ment of what is right, and the absence of what is wrong, 
would end in civil freedom, as far as it was in the mas- 
ter's power. On this point we offer a few remarks. 



852 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

As we have seen, in quoting the Roman law on slav- 
ery, there were few obstacles in the way of legal emanci- 
pation, as any master could set his slaves free, with some 
exceptions. We refer to what is given in a preceding 
chapter on this point. 

Yet there were some cases in which the owner could 
not set the slave free. Emancipation could not take 
place in fraud of creditors. (Institutes, I, Tit. 6 ; Dig., 
XL, 9.) A master under twenty years of age could not 
manumit without the leave of his guardian. (Institutes, 
I, 6, 4.) Augustus restrained the right of indiscriminate 
manumission, so that no one could set free more than a 
certain proportion of his slaves at any one time. 

At the first, under the Republic, emancipation was 
complete whenever effected. But under the emperors 
there were great differences existing as to the degrees of 
freedom. In the time when Paul wrote, the state of the 
Roman law was as follows : The freed-man, though 
legally and practically free on the whole, still depended 
on his former master. He could wear the toga and have 
a name, mostly of his master. He was compelled to 
honor his master, assist him in misfortune, and not sue 
him in law. Freed-men who violated these obligations 
were punished, and were sometimes reduced to slavery, as 
these requirements were the conditions on which they 
were freed. 

Freed-men, in Paul's time, were divided into Dedititiiy 
Latini, and cives Romani. The first were subjects or trib- 
utaries of the Roman Government, and were neither 
slaves, citizens, nor Latins. The Latins could not enjoy 
the legal rights of the connuhium, and they were otherwise 
disabled as to rights of citizens, because they were not 
citizens. But they could obtain citizenship in several 
ways. 

Although the freed-men might become Roman citizens. 



PAULINE DISCIPLINE ON SLAVERY. 353 

their patrons had certain rights over them. They could 
not make a will, nor take property under a will, nor be 
named tutors to a will. They could take, however, by 
way of fidei commissum. Yet the sons of freed-men were 
ingenui, or freemen, but often taunted on account of their 
servile origin. 

The act of manumission created a new relation, similar 
to that between father and son. The manumittor became 
the patron of the freed-man, and the latter was the lib- 
ertus, or freed-man, of the former. The freed-man adopted 
the Gentile name of the patron, was his client, must re- 
spect him, and render him aid, if necessary. The patron 
claimed a right to all these. There are many intricate 
points in the Roman law in reference to the relations of 
patrons and freed-men. The further pursuit of them 
would not be relevant to our purpose. (See Dig., XL, 
Tit. 9, L. 30 ; and XXXVII, Tit. 14, L. 19 ; and other 
parts of the civil law connected with these. Compare 
Anthon's Dictionary on Latinus, Libertus, Dedititii, Fat- 
ronus, etc., with Roman historians, philosophers, etc.) 

The state of the question, in reference to the Church, 
was the following : In some cases, legal freedom could 
not be given, though in most cases it could. When 
given, the freed-men were still subject to their patrons, 
and owed them such services as tributes to their former 
relation, and this remained till death. Besides, the moral 
reasons were also in the way of Christians, such as the 
case of minors, of aged and disabled persons, the ties of 
marriage which bound Christians, of parents and chil- 
dren. On these accounts no law of emancipation, espe- 
cially immediate, could apply as a general law. Hence 
the absence of such a law in the Pauline code. Yet the 
principles laid down by Paul would lead to emancipation 
in all those cases that were practicable and just ; and, in 
the mean time, the Pauline code, by instituting the law 



854 THE BIBLE AND SLAVERY. 

of love, of justice, of remimeration, and discarding all 
injustice and wrong, inducing the Christian brother- 
hood, was a noble substitute for freedom, as well as a 
guarantee for it in the future as soon as it could be con- 
ferred. 

18. Furthermore, all Christians had the history of 
God's providence before them in reference to freedom and 
^slavery. They found slavery condemned in the case of 
Joseph, and in the bondage of the Hebrews in Egypt, as 
well as by the principles of right and wrong in the Old 
Testament. They found freedom approved and main- 
tained in the families of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, under 
whose administration it gradually disappeared, so that, 
on the descent to Egypt, it ceased to exist. In the Mo- 
saic code the laws on bond-service rooted out the ele- 
ments of slavery from among the Hebrews, and inherent, 
too, in depraved human nature, and established freedom. 
Hence, the Jews could say, as a nation, in our Lord's 
time, " We were never in bondage to any man." Our 
Lord's great commission in general terms proclaimed 
liberty, not slavery, to the captives, and freedom to all 
whom it found to be slaves, by its holy influences and 
heavenly brotherhood. And Paul, the apostle of the 
Gentiles, the Roman citizen, gave such instruction to 
masters and slaves as would gradually undermine the 
system, so as to establish in all Christian lands, in the 
issue, full civil freedom, as well as freedom from the 
service of sin. 



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